Catalog
5000 Drachmai brown
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1947 |
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| Currency | Second modern drachma (1944-1953) |
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| Obverse description | A central oval vignette presents an allegorical mother figure draped in a veil, holding an infant and accompanied by a young child to her left, rendered in intaglio in brown tones. The denomination ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ ΠΕΝΤΕ ΧΙΛΙΑΔΕΣ is inscribed in bold letterpress to the left, with the date and place of issue below. The heading ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ appears across the top, flanked by the numeral 5,000 at both lower corners. |
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| Obverse lettering | ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ ΠΕΝΤΕ ΧΙΛΙΑΔΕΣ Πληρωθεί επί τη εμφανίσει ΕΝ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΣ ΤΗ 9 ΙΟΥΝΙΟΥ 1947 ΟΙ ΔΙΕΥΘΥΝΤΑΙ 5.000 |
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| Comments |
Greece in 1947 was a country in the middle of a civil war, with the communist-aligned Democratic Army fighting the internationally backed government in Athens. Banknote production had been thoroughly disrupted — hyperinflation during the Axis occupation had rendered earlier series worthless, requiring a full monetary reform in 1944 and then again adjustments in 1946. This note belongs to the post-reform stabilization effort, printed in London by De La Rue while domestic infrastructure remained unreliable.
The brown colorway distinguishes this from the earlier 5000 Drachmai issues of the occupation period, which carry an entirely different inflationary history. De La Rue's intaglio work on Greek commissions of this period is consistently fine, though the political instability meant distribution was uneven across regions still contested by guerrilla forces.