5000 Drachmai

Greece in 1942 was under Axis occupation, and the Bank of Greece was forced to issue notes at an accelerating pace to fund occupation costs demanded by Germany and Italy. The result was hyperinflation of catastrophic speed — by 1944, the drachma had collapsed so completely that this 5,000-drachmai note, a substantial denomination when printed, was effectively worthless within two years of issue.

Korogiannakis was one of the Bank of Greece's own engravers, and the note was produced domestically under occupation conditions rather than by one of the major foreign security printers the Bank had relied upon before the war.