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200 000 000 Drachmai
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1944 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 139 × 62 mm |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette consists of a relief panel from the Parthenon Frieze, rendered after the high-relief Pentelic marble sculptures of the Panathenaic procession cavalry, set within a guilloche border. Denomination numerals appear at the corners, with issuer inscription and promise-to-pay legend arranged across the face. Date of issue, 9 September 1944, is stated within the body text. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ 200 ΕΚΑΤΟΜΜΥΡΙΑ ΕΚΔΟΣΙΣ ΠΡΩΤΗ (Translation: Bank of Greece 200 million Drachmai First Issue) |
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| Comments |
This note was issued during the Axis occupation of Greece, when hyperinflation had rendered earlier denominations useless within weeks of printing. The drachma's collapse was among the most severe in recorded monetary history — by late 1944, a single gold sovereign exchanged for trillions of drachmai. A 200,000,000 denomination, unimaginable a few years earlier, was already insufficient for basic transactions by the time this series circulated.
Printed entirely in Athens under occupation conditions, the run of just over 12 million notes was absorbed almost immediately into a collapsing economy. The liberation of Greece in October 1944 triggered a currency reform; these notes were replaced the following November at a rate of 50 billion old drachmai to one new drachma.