100 Drachmai

The National Bank of Greece's 1852 issue predates the country's modern central banking apparatus by decades — the National Bank itself had only been established in 1841, and these early notes were issued under a privilege that gave it sole right of paper money emission while simultaneously functioning as a commercial lender. The dual role created chronic tensions between monetary prudence and political pressure that would dog the institution throughout the nineteenth century.

Pick 21 is among the earliest large-denomination Greek paper issues to survive in any number, though genuine examples remain genuinely rare. The printing was handled in Athens under difficult technical conditions — Greece had no established security printing industry at the time.