50 Lepta Obverse Trial

Greece struck no regular-issue 50 lepta coinage in 1921 — the country's finances were hemorrhaging under the costs of the Greco-Turkish War, which had resumed in earnest that year with the Anatolian campaign. This trial piece in aluminium almost certainly reflects emergency planning around wartime metal shortages, aluminium being floated as a cheaper alternative to the cupronickel and nickel compositions used in earlier lepta series. The regular 50 lepta type was never produced for circulation from this trial.