25 Drachmai blue front

The Ionian Bank Limited operated under a British royal charter granted in 1839, making it one of the few private banks in Greece to hold formal note-issuing rights during the period this note was produced. Its concession covered the Ionian Islands, territories that had only passed from British to Greek sovereignty in 1864 — meaning the bank's constitutional position was always slightly anomalous within the Greek financial system, tolerated rather than integrated.

Waterlow & Sons printed for dozens of colonial and semi-colonial banking institutions across this period, and their work for the Ionian Bank is consistent with that output: competent intaglio, reliable security features, no particular deviation from their house approach to private bank commissions. The blue colorway distinguishes this denomination within the series.