Catalog
100 000 Drachmai
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1944 |
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| Printer | Bank of Greece Printing Works, Athens |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| 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. |
| Reverse lettering | ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ 100.000 ΕΚΔΟΣΙΣ ΠΡΩΤΗ |
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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The series was superseded almost immediately by the November 1944 currency reform, in which 50 billion old drachmai were exchanged for a single new drachma.