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25 000 Drachmai Agricultural Treasury Bond, third issue
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Reverse description | Printed entirely in green on cream paper, the reverse is dominated by dense engine-turned guilloche latticework filling the entire field. A large cartouche at centre carries the numeral 25.000 in bold open letterpress. Rosette ornaments appear at top and bottom centre, with the legend ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ repeated in horizontal and vertical borders. |
| 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.