Catalog
200 000 000 Drachmai Trikala
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1944 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | A revalidation overprint in black letterpress text runs across the centre of the note, issued by the Trikala regional authorities and dated 10 October 1944, with an additional German eagle and swastika stamp in red ink applied below. The underlying Bank of Greece 200,000,000 Drachmai note is visible with its large denomination numeral and guilloche border elements, while two manuscript signatures appear at lower left and lower right beneath the overprint text. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse carries a revalidation stamp overprint authorising the note for local circulation in the Trikala region, consistent with the German occupation-era practice of restamping existing Bank of Greece notes for regional use. |
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| Comments |
By mid-1944, Greek hyperinflation had rendered denominations meaningless almost as fast as they could be printed. This Trikala issue is one of a series of regionally overprinted notes produced as the occupation-era monetary system disintegrated — the city designation distinguished local emergency issues from central Athens-printed stock, a stop-gap measure as distribution networks collapsed under wartime conditions.
The 200,000,000 drachmai face value, staggering on paper, represented almost nothing in purchasing power by the time these notes reached circulation. Greece's wartime inflation is among the most severe recorded in the 20th century, with the drachma ultimately redenominated at 50 billion old to one new in November 1944.