100 Drachmai

The Hellenic Bank (Ελληνική Τράπεζα) was established in 1841 as Greece's first bank of issue, granted its charter the same year this note was produced. The institution operated under a French-influenced banking model, reflecting the broader Bavarian regency's reliance on Western European financial frameworks to build a functional monetary system for the newly independent Greek state. Greek public confidence in paper instruments was essentially nonexistent at this point — specie had been the only trusted medium for generations.

P#12 is among the rarest documented issues from this bank, and surviving examples are extraordinarily few.