50 Phoenix

The Phoenix was Greece's first national currency, introduced in 1828 by Ioannis Kapodistrias following independence from Ottoman rule. This 1831 note was issued during the death throes of that short-lived monetary experiment — Kapodistrias had been assassinated in October of that year, and the political chaos that followed effectively ended the Phoenix's viability before a stable banking infrastructure could take hold.

The National Bank Commission had already been struggling with counterfeiting problems severe enough to undermine public confidence in the entire series. Greece abandoned the Phoenix entirely in 1832, replacing it with the Drachma under Bavarian-backed governance. Survivors of this issue are genuinely rare.