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1 000 000 Drachmai
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1944 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 140 × 62 mm |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central oval vignette presents an intaglio view of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion (c. 440 BC), its surviving Doric columns rising against a lightly engraved seascape and sky. Large numeral panels reading '1.000.000' flanked by the denomination legend ΕΝ ΕΚΑΤΟΜΜΥΡΙΟΝ appear to either side, all set within an elaborate guilloche border. The bank name ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ runs along the top, with the caption ΣΟΥΝΙΟΝ - ΝΑΟΣ ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝΟΣ below the central vignette and ΕΚΔΟΣΙΣ ΠΡΩΤΗ in a panel at the foot. |
| Reverse lettering | ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΕΝ ΕΚΑΤΟΜΜΥΡΙΟΝ 1.000.000 ΣΟΥΝΙΟΝ - ΝΑΟΣ ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝΟΣ ΕΚΔΟΣΙΣ ΠΡΩΤΗ |
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| Comments |
Greece's wartime hyperinflation was among the worst the twentieth century produced. By October 1944, the drachma had collapsed so completely that a single gold sovereign was trading for approximately two billion paper drachmai. This one-million drachma note, printed by the Bank of Greece's own works in Athens, was already functionally worthless by the time it circulated — a denomination that would have been unthinkable five years earlier.
The print date of 30 April 1945 places production after liberation, during the chaotic monetary cleanup preceding the November 1944 reform issue, in which eleven billion old drachmai were exchanged for a single new one.