German issued Greek currency, 10,000 Drachmai note
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 3.250 inches (8.255 cm) | Width: 6.500 inches (16.51 cm)
Creator(s)
- Trapeza te?s Hellados (Issuer)
Archival History
The collection was donated to the United Sates Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2003 by Joel Forman.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Joel Forman
Scope and Content
German-issued Greek National currency valued at 10,000 Drachmai. The Greek currency, called Drachma, can be traced back to the 6th century BC. The currency was discontinued after the Roman conquest of Greece, and reissued after Greece gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. Many of the Greek notes featured figures and images from Greek Mythology and history. The reverse has an image of the Treasury of Athens which was built to hold the offerings to the Delphi oracle. On April 6, 1941, Germany invaded Greece to support Italy and forced the Greeks to surrender by the end of the month. Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria collectively occupied Greece until Italy’s surrender to the Allies in September 1943. Then Germany occupied all of Greece, and forced the Greek government to pay for the occupation by printing more paper money with higher denominations. The excess Drachmai caused hyperinflation, and the price for goods and services rose dramatically. During the occupation, the price of corn was 9 million Drachmai per pound. The essentially worthless paper bills gave way to bartering of supplies such as olive oil, cigarettes, and wheat. Due to the invasion and the harsh economic policies, hundreds of thousands of Greeks died from lack of food during the German occupation.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Greek currency printed on lightweight, off-white rectangular paper. The face has a large, centered, rectangular printed area with a black border of interlacing lines with geometric shapes and the numeric denomination in each corner. On the left is an image of a man and woman from the chest up in in left profile. The woman wears a traditional white poukamiso, a black segouni, and a mandili over her hair, and the man wears a poukamiso and a hat. They are both shaded with hatched lines. To the right, inside a frame of black geometric lines, are several lines of text and the numeric denomination in blue. The reverse features a centered image of the Athenian Treasury, a columned stone building on top of a hill among stone ruins and undulating mountains in the background. The entire image is shaded with hatched lines. Flanking the image is the numeric denomination overlaid on layered curved lines, inside a geometric square with stepped sides. The border is made up of small, black geometric shapes and the numeric denomination is in each corner.
face, top right, stamped, red ink : AZ 082725
Subjects
- Greece--History--Occupation, 1941-1944.
- Greece--Economic conditions--1918-1974.
- Greece.
- Paper money--Greece--History.
- Delphian oracle.
- Temple of Apollo (Delphi)
- Banks and banking.
Genre
- Object
- Exchange Media
- Money.