₯200 — Two Hundred Drachmas
The artwork
Front: Rigas Velestinlis-Feraios, the Vlach-Greek poet and revolutionary of the 1790s, engraved in warm orange with his name printed beneath and the year 1821 below that. His motto runs as microtext in the guilloche: whoever thinks freely thinks well. To the right, ΔΡΑΧΜΕΣ ΔΙΑΚΟΣΙΕΣ, payable on demand, Athens 2 September 1996, and a small upright panel previewing the back vignette. Governor's and Director's signatures at upper left.
Back: Nikolaos Gyzis's painting The Secret School — named in script as το Κρυφό Σχολείο — a bearded priest teaching children from a book by lamplight in a vaulted room, an armed klepht leaning on his staff at the right keeping watch. Greek and Ottoman-influenced ornament frames the scene in green and rose, with ΔΡΑΧΜΕΣ ΔΙΑΚΟΣΙΕΣ large at lower left.
In circulation
Issued from 1996 as the smallest note of the final drachma family, alongside the 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000. It circulated until the euro replaced drachma cash on 1 January 2002, its role largely taken by the one-euro coin; the Bank of Greece redeemed such notes for a further ten years.
Details
- IssuerΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ — Bank of Greece
- CurrencyDrachma (₯)
- DenominationTwo Hundred Drachmas
- Collectedon the Greece journeys, 1998–2012
- SeriesDated Athens, 2 September 1996; three-digit serial prefix (010) with six digits, printed twice on the face
- SignatureΟ ΔΙΟΙΚΗΤΗΣ (Governor) and Ο ΔΙΕΥΘΥΝΤΗΣ (Director)
- SecurityMicroprinted text in the ornament: Rigas's motto on the freedom of thought, and repeated ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ / ΔΡΑΧΜΕΣ 200 in vertical and horizontal lines
- PrinterBank of Greece printing works, credited at lower left of the back