Catalog
25 Drachmai
| Issuer | National Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1928 |
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| Value | 25 Drachmai |
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| Obverse description | Portrait of Georgios Stavros in an intaglio-engraved circular vignette at left, set within an ornate guilloche border. The central field carries elaborate multicolour guilloche rosettes flanking the large numeral '25' in a dark cartouche, with the denomination legend ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ ΕΙΚΟΣΙΠΕΝΤΕ inscribed beneath and the date 15 ΑΠΡΙΛΙΟΥ 1923 at centre. A bold red letterpress overprint reading ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ crosses the face, replacing the original issuing authority with the new bank name, while the imprint of the American Bank Note Company appears at the lower margin. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | ΕΘΝΙΚΗ ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΕΚΔΟΣΙΣ ΔΩΔΕΚΑΤΗ AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY |
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| Comments |
The 1928 Greek drachma series was a direct product of the monetary stabilization plan negotiated under the League of Nations following Greece's catastrophic decade of war, population exchange, and hyperinflation. The drachma was pegged to gold and the currency effectively rebuilt from scratch, with the American Bank Note Company contracted to supply a modern, difficult-to-counterfeit series — a deliberate signal of institutional seriousness to foreign creditors.
ABNC's involvement meant intaglio printing of high technical quality, though this particular denomination is among the more available survivors of the issue. The stabilization didn't hold long; Greece was forced off gold by 1932 following the global financial collapse.