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500 Dracme
| Issuer | Cassa Mediterranea di Credito per la Grecia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1941 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 Drachmai |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CASSA MEDITERRANEA DI CREDITO PER LA GRECIA ΜΕΣΟΓΕΙΟΝ ΤΑΜΕΙΟΝ ΠΙΣΤΕΩΣ ΔΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ BUONO PER Cinquecento DRACME ΑΞΙΑ ΠΕΝΤΑΚΟΣΙΑΙ ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ 500 |
| Reverse description | A largely plain green note with denomination numerals 500 printed in red at all four corners, alternating between the Italian 'DRACME' and Greek 'ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ' designations. The central field carries the issuer's bilingual title and the cursive denomination inscription over a faint guilloche underprint, with a small-text legal tender clause in Italian and Greek at the bottom centre. |
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| Comments |
The Cassa Mediterranea di Credito per la Grecia was an Italian military occupation currency authority, established in 1941 to manage monetary affairs in Axis-occupied Greece. Its notes circulated alongside — and progressively displaced — the existing Bank of Greece issues, with the occupying forces effectively using the printing press to extract resources from the local economy without direct foreign exchange cost.
Greece suffered one of the worst hyperinflationary collapses of the war years. By 1944, the drachma had become nearly worthless, and occupation-era issues like this one are inseparable from that catastrophe.