500 Drachmai

Greece was in the middle of the Greco-Turkish War when this note entered circulation, and the financial strain showed. The National Bank of Greece turned to the American Bank Note Company at a moment when domestic printing capacity could not keep pace with wartime monetary demand — a pattern repeated across several Greek issues of this period.

Axelos designed the plate, an unusual credit for a Greek national to appear on an ABNC commission. Worth noting: the 1922 date range on this type overlaps directly with the Asia Minor catastrophe, after which Greece absorbed over a million refugees and inflation pressures made high-denomination notes like this one move quickly through commerce.