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5000 Drachmai
| Issuer | Bank of Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | First modern drachma (1832-1944) |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette presents a portrait of Athena rendered after an ancient bas-relief, flanked by a secondary vignette of a cattle procession led to sacrifice — a scene drawn from a classical relief now held in the British Museum. Denomination and issuing authority inscriptions appear in Greek script within the surrounding border design. |
|---|---|
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| Variants | P#122a(1) - serial # with prefix letters P#122a(2) - serial # with suffix letters |
| Comments |
Issued under the Axis occupation, this note belongs to the catastrophic inflation series that eventually forced denominations into the billions. The 1943–1944 period saw the drachma lose all practical value — by late 1944, a single gold sovereign commanded trillions of drachmai on the open market. The Bank of Greece continued issuing notes under occupation authorities, but the institution had effectively lost control of monetary policy entirely.
Pick 122 was printed by the American Bank Note Company on behalf of the occupation-era administration. The inflationary spiral this note entered shortly after issue is one of the most severe hyperinflations recorded in twentieth-century Europe.