Catalog
500 Drachmai
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1968 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 Drachmai (500 GRD) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Olive tint on multicolor underprint. The central vignette presents the Eleusinian Relief, a celebrated ancient marble carving showing Demeter, Triptolemos and Persephone in classical composition. Denomination numerals appear at right within multicolor guilloche panels, with the full bank title and value inscriptions arranged across the face in Greek. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Olive tint on multicolor underprint. The lower left vignette reproduces an ancient plaque from Knossos with a wild goat and its kid rendered in the Minoan artistic tradition, while fruits appear at bottom center. Denomination numerals and bank title inscriptions in Greek are distributed across the design with guilloche patterning filling the field. |
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| Comments |
This note was issued under the military junta that seized power in April 1967, and the Bank of Greece continued operating under strict government oversight throughout the regime. The 500 Drachmai denomination was the highest circulating value in the series at the time, making it a note handled primarily in commercial transactions rather than everyday retail use.
Printed domestically at Holargos rather than contracted abroad — as Greek notes frequently had been in earlier decades — this series reflects the junta-era push toward self-sufficiency in state printing operations. The engravers Orphanos and Angelopoulos were both staff engravers at the Holargos facility.