Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
25 Drachmai
| Issuer | National Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1897-1900 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 25 Drachmai |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | At left, a standing allegorical figure of Athena in classical dress holds a spear and rests against a shield, set against an orange guilloche underprint. A bust-length male portrait vignette occupies the centre within an ornate circular frame, flanked by the denomination numeral 25 on each side. The royal coat of arms of Greece appears at lower right, with three signature lines and a handwritten date below the central vignette. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 25 25 BANQUE NATIONALE DE GRÈCE VINGT CINQ DRACHMES 25 25 (Translation: 25 25 National Bank of Greece Twenty-five Drachmas 25 25) |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The National Bank of Greece leaned heavily on Waterlow & Sons throughout the late nineteenth century, a relationship driven by cost and reliability rather than any particular design ambition. This series was produced during a period of acute fiscal stress: Greece had defaulted on its external debt in 1893 and by 1897 was fighting — and losing — a brief war with the Ottoman Empire, after which an International Financial Commission was imposed on Athens to supervise state revenues directly.
Paper quality in surviving examples from this issue tends to be brittle at the folds, a known characteristic of Waterlow's stock used for Greek issues of this period rather than a circulation problem specific to any individual note.