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2 Drachmai
| Issuer | Kingdom of Greece (Ministry of Finance) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΝ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ Νόμος 991 της 27ης Οκτωβρίου 1917 ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ ΔΥΟ Ο ΥΠΟΥΡΓΟΣ ΤΩΝ ΟΙΚΟΝΟΜΙΚΩΝ Ο ΚΕΝΤΡΙΚΟΣ ΤΑΜΙΑΣ |
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| Reverse lettering | Η ΠΑΡΑΠΟΙΗΣΙΣ Η ΠΛΑΣΤΟΓΡΑΦΗΣΙΣ ΚΑΙ Η ΕΝ ΓΝΩΣΕΙ ΤΗΣ ΠΛΑΣΤΟΤΗΤΟΣ ΚΥΚΛΟΦΟΡΙΑ ΤΙΜΩΡΟΥΝΤΑΙ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΝΟΜΟΝ ΑΝΩΝΥΜΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΕΤΑΙΡΕΙΑ ΓΡΑΦΙΚΩΝ ΤΕΧΝΩΝ • ΑΔΕΛΦΟΙ Γ. ΑΣΠΙΛΤΗ • ΚΕΡΚΥΡΑ |
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| Comments |
Greece entered the First World War in fractured circumstances — the so-called National Schism split the country between the royalist government of King Constantine I and the Venizelist provisional government in Thessaloniki. The Ministry of Finance, not the Bank of Greece, issued these low-denomination emergency notes precisely because normal banking functions had broken down under that political rupture. Treasury-issued small notes of this period were a stopgap against the acute shortage of coin, which had been hoarded or melted as the war disrupted silver supplies.
The printer, Aspilti Brothers, was a Corfu-based commercial printing firm — not a specialist security printer. That origin matters: the notes lack the intaglio depth of a proper currency press, and counterfeiting was a known problem with the series.