25 000 Drachmai

This note belongs to the extreme inflationary sequence Greece endured under Axis occupation, when the occupying powers — Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria — requisitioned Greek resources and forced the Bank of Greece to cover the resulting deficits by printing. The 1943 issues escalated rapidly in face value, and 25,000 drachmai, a sum that would have been unthinkable before the war, was already insufficient for basic transactions within months of issue.

Printed domestically under occupation conditions, the quality of production reflects the material constraints of the period. Greece's wartime hyperinflation ultimately required a currency reform in November 1944, at a conversion rate of 50 billion old drachmai to one new drachma.