200 000 000 Drachmai Agrinion

Pick 146 belongs to the extraordinary series of regional emergency notes issued by Bank of Greece branch offices during the German-Italian occupation, when hyperinflation had so thoroughly destroyed purchasing power that denominations escalated from thousands to billions within months. By mid-1944 the central government in Athens had effectively lost control of the money supply, and branch managers were authorized — or simply forced by necessity — to issue their own notes to keep local commerce from collapsing entirely into barter.

The Agrinion branch notes are signed by the local director, Γ. Φάνος, whose name rather than a central bank governor appears on the face — an unusual inversion of normal issuing authority that reflects just how fragmented the monetary system had become. Liberation came in October 1944; the entire wartime drachma series was subsequently demonetized.