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10 Phoenix
| Issuer | National Bank Commission (Εθνική Τραπεζική Επιτροπή), Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1831 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Typeset letterpress design enclosed within a rectangular border of ornamental Greek-key and chain-link guilloche frames. The denomination ΦΟΙΝΙΚΕΣ 10 ΔΕΚΑ appears at the head of the note with the numeral '10' repeated in the left margin; the body carries a multi-line Greek text citing Legislative Decree KZ, issued at Aegina and dated 4 June 1831. A manuscript serial number and two handwritten signatures of the National Bank Commission appear at the lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Reverse entirely blank, bearing no printed text, vignette, or manuscript content. |
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| Comments |
Greece's phoenix was the country's first currency, introduced by Ioannis Kapodistrias in 1828 and named deliberately — a newly independent nation rising from Ottoman rule. The National Bank Commission that issued this note was not a central bank in any modern sense but a provisional administrative body operating during an extraordinarily unstable period, with the Greek state barely three years out from the formal recognition of independence at the London Protocol of 1830.
Kapodistrias was assassinated in October 1831, the same year this note circulated. The phoenix denomination itself survived him by only a few years, replaced by the drachma in 1833 under the Bavarian regency of King Otto.