Catalog
5 Drachmai - Othon
| Issuer | Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1833-1846 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Bare-headed effigy of the young King Othon facing right, rendered in high relief with finely detailed wavy hair, the truncation of the neck resting above the lower border. The circular Greek legend reads ΟΘΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ (Othon King of Greece), distributed around the periphery. The engraver's signature Κ. ΦΟΙΓΤ (K. Voigt) appears incuse in small capitals below the neck truncation near the lower field. The portrait is executed in the neoclassical style characteristic of Voigt's Munich workshop, with a smooth, open field framing the effigy. |
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| Obverse lettering | ΟΘΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ Κ. ΦΟΙΓΤ (Translation: OTHON KING OF GREECE / K. VOIGT) |
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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Othon was deposed in 1862, and coins of his reign were rapidly withdrawn and melted.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.