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2 Drachmai
| Issuer | Kingdom of Greece (Ministry of Finance) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | First modern drachma (1832-1944) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of Hermes seated, rendered in terracotta-red intaglio within a diamond-shaped frame set against a dark blue guilloche ground, flanked on each side by Classical column motifs. The denomination numeral '2' appears in cartouches at upper left and upper right, with the title inscription across the top and 'ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ ΔΥΟ' in a solid panel at the base. Law number and date are printed below the title, with two manuscript signatures at the lower centre over their respective role designations. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The Royal Arms of Greece — a crowned shield bearing a white cross on blue, supported by two classical figures — occupies a circular vignette at left, set within an elaborate acanthus-scroll surround printed in olive-brown on an uncoloured ground. A second circular panel at right contains the numeral '2', accompanied by an anti-counterfeiting warning text. The printer's imprint runs in a single line along the lower border. |
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| Comments |
Greece entered the First World War in fractured circumstances — the so-called National Schism split the country between the royalist government of King Constantine I and the Venizelist provisional government in Thessaloniki. The Ministry of Finance, not the Bank of Greece, issued these low-denomination emergency notes precisely because normal banking functions had broken down under that political rupture. Treasury-issued small notes of this period were a stopgap against the acute shortage of coin, which had been hoarded or melted as the war disrupted silver supplies.
The printer, Aspilti Brothers, was a Corfu-based commercial printing firm — not a specialist security printer. That origin matters: the notes lack the intaglio depth of a proper currency press, and counterfeiting was a known problem with the series.