20 000 Dracme

The Cassa Mediterranea di Credito per la Grecia was not a Greek institution — it was an Italian military occupation authority, established in 1941 to manage currency in the Italian-occupied zones of Greece following the Axis invasion that April. Notes issued under this authority circulated alongside the existing Bank of Greece drachma but were backed by nothing more than occupation force.

The series was printed in Italy, and the inflated face value reflects conditions that would only worsen dramatically — Greek hyperinflation during the Axis occupation became one of the most severe monetary collapses in modern European history, with the drachma eventually requiring a 1944 redenomination at 50 billion old drachmai to one new.