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25 000 000 Drachmai Kalamata
| Issuer | Bank of Greece (Kalamata Branch) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1944 |
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| In circulation to | 1944 |
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| Obverse description | Plain typeset note with Greek flags printed at upper left and upper right corners. The central text area carries the Bank of Greece heading, denomination in numerals and words, a promise-to-pay clause in Greek, and the place and date of issue reading ΚΑΛΑΜΑΤΑ 20 ΣΕΠΤΕΜΒΡΙΟΥ 1944. A serial number and letter prefix appear at centre right, with two manuscript signatures at lower left under the legend ΠΡΟΣΩΡΙΝΗ ΔΕΛΤΙΚΗ ΕΠΙΤΡΟΠΗ, and a third manuscript signature at lower right above the ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΥΠΟΚΑΤΑΣΤΗΜΑ ΚΑΛΑΜΩΝ imprint. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Plain reverse printed on buff-toned paper with a simple typographic border of repeated arrow or leaf motifs running along all four edges. A circular ink stamp of the Bank of Greece Kalamata branch is impressed at centre, and two manuscript signatures appear to its left, bleeding slightly from the obverse show-through. |
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| Comments |
By mid-1944, the Axis occupation had so thoroughly destroyed the Greek monetary system that the Bank of Greece authorized regional branches to issue their own emergency notes. The Kalamata branch was among those that produced local overprints and stamps on existing notes to meet catastrophic hyperinflation — the same inflation that would, within months, require denominations in the trillions of drachmai.
The official stamp is the sole security feature, which reflects both the desperate improvisation of the period and the near-total collapse of centralized monetary control. Authentication of genuine branch stamps versus later forgeries remains a known complication with this entire regional emergency series.