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50 Dracme Italian occupation
| Issuer | Cassa Mediterranea di Credito per la Grecia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1941 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | First modern drachma (1832-1944) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A sheaf of wheat occupies the left portion of the design, while the centre carries the denomination and bilingual issuer text set within interlaced guilloche patterns. The overall composition is spare and typographic in character, consistent with the utilitarian nature of this occupation currency. |
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The Cassa Mediterranea di Credito per la Grecia was not a bank in any meaningful sense — it was an Italian military finance instrument, established by Mussolini's government in 1941 specifically to extract resources from occupied Greece without triggering the legal complications of using official lire. Notes issued under this authority circulated alongside a collapsing Greek economy already being stripped by Axis requisitioning, contributing directly to the hyperinflationary spiral that by 1944 had rendered all such occupation currency worthless.
Printed by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato — Italy's state printing works and mint — the production quality is noticeably higher than the economy it served.