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5 Drachmai - Othon

Issuer Greece
Year 1833-1846
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Diameter 38.2 mm
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Reverse description Central shield bearing a Greek cross on a horizontally lined field, with a small Bavarian lozenge inescutcheon at the centre of the cross, surmounted by a royal crown with cross finial. The shield is flanked on either side by a graceful olive branch, their stems crossing below the shield base. The denomination 5 ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ and the date 1833 are inscribed in two lines in the lower exergue, separated from the main device by a horizontal rule. The overall composition is symmetrical and heraldically precise, consistent with early issues of the modern Greek kingdom.
Reverse script Greek
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Additional information

Othon — the Bavarian prince installed as Greece's first modern king in 1832 — arrived to find a country with no functioning monetary system. The 1833 coinage law established the drachma as the national currency, consciously reviving an ancient name to anchor the new state's identity in classical antiquity. These early issues were struck at the Munich mint under Bavarian supervision, as Greece had no facility of its own.

Othon was deposed in 1862, and coins of his reign were rapidly withdrawn and melted. Uncirculated survivors are genuinely rare.