Catalog
5000 Drachmai
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
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| Year | 1942 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Alexandros Korogiannakis |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio on blue, yellow and red underprint. A central vignette presents the Nike of Samothrace flanked by industrial workers, with a factory at lower left and a fisherman with boat and net at lower right. Decorative columns of fruit border the composition at left and right. |
|---|---|
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| Variants | P#119a(1) - without watermark small serial # P#119a(2) - without watermark large serial # P#119b - with watermark (honeycomb pattern) |
| Comments |
Greece in 1942 was under Axis occupation, and the Bank of Greece was forced to issue notes at an accelerating pace to fund occupation costs demanded by Germany and Italy. The result was hyperinflation of catastrophic speed — by 1944, the drachma had collapsed so completely that this 5,000-drachmai note, a substantial denomination when printed, was effectively worthless within two years of issue.
Korogiannakis was one of the Bank of Greece's own engravers, and the note was produced domestically under occupation conditions rather than by one of the major foreign security printers the Bank had relied upon before the war.