Catalog
25 000 Drachmai Agricultural Treasury Bond, third issue
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Green and cream treasury bond format with ornate guilloche border. The issuer title ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ appears in a panel at top, with the denomination 25.000 in large numerals over a rosette underprint at centre. Three signature lines with a red serial number, dated 15 May 1943, and legislative decree references printed vertically in the margins. |
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| Reverse lettering | ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ |
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| Comments |
Greece's wartime occupation currency collapsed in stages, and by 1943 the inflation was so severe that the Bank of Greece resorted to issuing Agricultural Treasury Bonds — effectively glorified emergency notes — to plug gaps the regular note series could no longer fill. The third issue of this denomination reflects the accelerating debasement: 25,000 drachmai had been an unthinkable face value just two years earlier, before the Axis occupation dismantled the monetary system entirely.
The bond format was partly a legal fiction, allowing the authorities to issue high-denomination instruments without formally acknowledging the scale of the collapse. By liberation in 1944, a new drachma was introduced at 50 billion old drachmai to one — arguably the most extreme redenomination in European history.