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50 Drachmai Italian occupation
| Issuer | Cassa Mediterranea di Credito per la Grecia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1941 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Vignette of an elderly male bust at left, with bilingual legal tender declaration and denomination rendered in both Italian and Greek within an ornate guilloche border frame at centre. The text identifies the note as valid currency for the Ionian Islands, with the treasurer's title printed below. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 50 |
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| Comments |
The Cassa Mediterranea di Credito per la Grecia was a purpose-built occupation institution, established by Italy in 1941 specifically to extract economic value from occupied Greece through a parallel currency system. Notes like this one were exchanged at a rate heavily disadvantageous to the Greek population, effectively functioning as a mechanism for requisitioning goods and labor without direct payment. The same institutional model had already been deployed in Libya and East Africa.
Greece's occupation-era hyperinflation — among the worst of the war — was partly fueled by exactly this kind of parallel issuance. By late 1944, the drachma had collapsed to a point requiring a complete redenomination.