500 Drachmai

Greece in 1944 was simultaneously occupied by Axis forces and experiencing one of the worst hyperinflationary collapses of the twentieth century. The drachma had been effectively destroyed by occupation-era money printing — by late 1944, notes were being issued in denominations reaching into the hundreds of billions. A 500 drachmai note from this period was worth almost nothing at the time of issue.

The November 1944 currency reform replaced wartime drachmai at a rate of 50 billion old drachmai to one new drachma, rendering the entire wartime series obsolete almost immediately after printing.