Catalog
1000 Drachmai cut note
| Issuer | National Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1926 |
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| Currency | First modern drachma (1832-1944) |
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| Obverse description | Blue-green note with a classical architectural vignette of a colonnade at left, and a circular portrait medallion of a statesman at right center, set against an intricate guilloche underprint with the denomination numeral '1000' in large figures at center. The bank title 'ΕΘΝΙΚΗ ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛ...' appears in a panel at upper right, with the serial number in red and the denomination 'ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ' below. Two signature lines with titles 'ΤΑΜΙΑΣ' and 'Ο ΔΙΟΙΚΗΤΗΣ' appear at the lower center, accompanied by the payment clause and date inscription. |
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| Reverse description | Brown-toned reverse with a large central vignette of the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens, rendered in fine line engraving with detailed architectural and landscape elements. The bank title 'ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ' curves along the upper portion, while the denomination numeral '1000' appears within an ornate guilloche panel at right, flanked by decorative floral rosette motifs. A meander border runs along the top and bottom edges. |
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| Comments |
Pick 83 is a bisected note — a 1000 Drachmai cut in half, with each half circulating as 500 Drachmai. This was not an informal wartime improvisation but an officially sanctioned measure, part of Greece's painful monetary stabilization effort in 1926 as the country grappled with the financial fallout from the Asia Minor catastrophe and the massive refugee resettlement burden that followed the 1923 population exchange with Turkey.
Bradbury, Wilkinson printed the parent sheet; the bisection and overprinting authorizing half-note circulation were applied domestically.