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20 Drachmai
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1954 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Blue intaglio on multicolour underprint. A vignette of helmeted Athena occupies the left portion of the note, with the denomination and two signature blocks at centre; the watermark area is reserved at right. An ancient Athenian tetradrachm coin motif appears at lower centre, lending a classical Hellenic character to the design. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse lettering | ΕΚΔΟΣΙΣ ΠΡΩΤΗ ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ 20 ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ ΕΙΚΟΣΙ 20 20 ΙΔΡΥΜΑ ΤΡΑΠΕΖΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ |
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| Comments |
Greece's decision to establish its own banknote printing facility at Holargos — operational by the early 1950s — was a deliberate move away from foreign printers like De La Rue and the American Bank Note Company, both of which had handled Greek issues for decades. This 1954 note belongs to that first wave of domestically produced currency, and the Holargos facility was still finding its footing in terms of intaglio consistency during this period.
The watermark is the sole security feature — modest even by 1954 standards, reflecting the low face value and correspondingly brief expected circulation life of small-denomination notes in postwar Greece, where inflation from the 1940s had badly eroded public confidence in paper.