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500 Drachmai
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1955 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 Drachmai (500 GRD) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Green on pale yellow underprint. A central scene portrays the Apostle Paul delivering his Areopagus sermon before an assembled crowd in Athens, executed in engraved intaglio. A pillar bearing an ancient inscription reading ΤΩ ΑΓΝΩΣΤΩ ΘΕΩ (To the Unknown God) is visible at lower left, with denomination numerals and issuer legends framing the composition. |
| Reverse lettering | ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΟΜΙΛΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΑΠ ΠΑΥΛΟΥ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΑΡΕΙΟΝ ΠΑΓΟΝ ΤΩ ΑΓΝΩΣΤΩ. ΘΕΟ 500 ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ ΠΕΝΤΑΚΟΣΙΑΙ 500 ΙΔΡΥΜΑ ΤΡΑΠΕΖΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ (Translation: Bank of Greece Sermon of Apostle Paul on the Areopagus To the Unknown God 500 Five hundred drachmai 500 Printing Works of the Bank of Greece) |
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| Comments |
Greece's postwar monetary reconstruction was still incomplete when this note entered circulation. The catastrophic hyperinflation of the Axis occupation years had wiped out confidence in paper entirely — the 1944 reform had lopped off eleven zeros — and the 1953 devaluation that preceded this issue reset the drachma again at 1,000 old drachmai to one new. A 500-drachma note in 1955 represented serious purchasing power in a country still heavily dependent on agriculture and Marshall Plan support.
Printed domestically by the state printing works at Holargos, this series marked a deliberate shift away from the foreign contract printing that had been standard practice for Greek notes throughout the interwar decades.