10 Drachmai

Greece established its own banknote printing facility at Holargos, near Athens, partly in response to the chaos of the occupation years and the catastrophic hyperinflation of 1941–1944, during which the country had depended on foreign printers. The Idryma Ektiposeos was one of the first state printing offices in the region to be built with postwar reconstruction funds — getting sovereign control over note production was a deliberate policy decision, not just a logistical convenience.

The 1954 series was issued under the new drachma introduced in 1953, when Greece redenominated at 1,000 old drachmai to one new. This 10-drachmai note circulated during a period of strict IMF-monitored monetary discipline, and low denominations like this one saw heavy use before inflation gradually rendered them obsolete by the early 1960s.