10 000 Drachmes

By 1995, Greek inflation had been running at double digits for over a decade, and the 10,000 drachma note — worth roughly 40 US dollars at issue — was thoroughly ordinary tender for everyday transactions. The denomination that would have seemed extraordinary in the 1970s had become the functional equivalent of a mid-range banknote in any stable currency.

Printed entirely in-house by the Bank of Greece's own facility at Holargos, this is one of the later drachma issues before the currency's absorption into the euro in 2001 and the end of physical drachma circulation in 2002. The engraving is a family collaboration of sorts — Ioannis Pipinis handled the obverse while Eleonora Perraki-Pipinis worked the reverse.