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!
5 Euros Chios Massacre
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 2022 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Euros |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse bears a detailed bas-relief adaptation of Eugène Delacroix's renowned 1824 Romantic painting 'Massacre at Chios,' depicting a group of despairing Greek captives — men, women, and children — in various poses of anguish and submission, rendered with expressive sculptural depth across the full field. The engraver's monogram appears at lower left. The commemorative legend arcs along the upper rim, flanked by the bicentennial dates, while the denomination '5 ΕΥΡΩ' is inscribed at lower right in the field. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Η ΣΦΑΓΗ ΤΗΣ ΧΙΟΥ 1822-2022 5 ΕΥΡΩ (Translation: THE MASSACRE AT CHIOS 1822-2022 5 EURO) |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Issued to mark the bicentennial of the 1822 Chios massacre, in which Ottoman forces killed or enslaved the majority of the island's population — estimates place the dead at 20,000 and those enslaved or expelled at over 70,000 — reducing one of the Aegean's most prosperous Greek communities to a fraction of its former size. The atrocity galvanized European philhellenic sentiment and directly influenced figures including Eugène Delacroix, whose resulting painting became one of the defining images of the Greek independence cause.
The .333 fine silver content places this squarely in the modern Greek commemorative billon tradition — collectible by intent, never meant to circulate.