100 Drachmai

This note belongs to a peculiar episode in Greek fiscal history. In 1922, the government of Dimitrios Gounaris — facing acute revenue shortages worsened by the ongoing Asia Minor campaign — ordered all holders of existing banknotes to physically surrender them, whereupon each note was cut in half. The left half was returned as circulating currency at half its face value; the right half was compulsorily converted into a forced state loan. Greece effectively halved its circulating money supply overnight without printing a single new note.

Bradbury Wilkinson had printed the original series years earlier. The bisection scheme meant their work was literally scissored apart by the state.