Catalog
100 000 Drachmai
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1944 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in brown on a fine guilloche underprint and carries two circular vignettes at left and right, each reproducing an ancient Athenian silver tetradrachm coin: the left vignette shows the helmeted head of Athena in profile, while the right vignette shows the standing owl with olive sprig — both classic motifs of Athenian coinage. The large numeral 100.000 is centred between the coin vignettes, with the Greek legends ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ above and ΕΚΑΤΟΝ ΧΙΛΙΑΔΕΣ below, and the bank title ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ across the top; two manuscript signatures appear at the lower centre beneath the titles Ο ΔΙΟΙΚΗΤΗΣ and ΟΙ ΔΙΕΥΘΥΝΤΑΙ. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in brown and centres on a large intaglio vignette of the Temple of Aphaea on Aegina Island, rendered in a detailed engraved landscape style with rocky foreground and open sky. The denomination 100.000 appears in large numerals at both left and right within ornate guilloche panels, and the bank title ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ is lettered across the top. The legend ΕΚΔΟΣΙΣ ΠΡΩΤΗ appears at the bottom centre, identifying this as the first issue. |
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| Comments |
Greece's wartime hyperinflation was among the most severe in recorded history. By late 1944, the drachma had collapsed so completely that this 100,000-drachmai note — a denomination unimaginable before the Axis occupation — was worth almost nothing the moment it left the press. The Bank of Greece was effectively printing currency faster than any economic anchor could be established, responding to German and Italian requisition policies that had systematically stripped the country's resources since 1941.
The series was superseded almost immediately by the November 1944 currency reform, in which 50 billion old drachmai were exchanged for a single new drachma.