The Euro replaces the Drachma and the national currencies of 11 other member states of the European Union.
The phoenix, the drachma and the euro are the three currencies (monetary units), which have been in circulation since the establishment of the Greek state.
Piaster
During the Revolution, monetary anarchy prevailed in the Greek area. Transactions were made with Ottoman coins, such as our well-known grosci, but also with various foreign coins (Spanish double column, Maria Theresa's thaler, Venetian gold check, etc.).
The idea of minting a Greek coin was first mooted in 1822. On March 5, Parliament passed Law 6, which determined the minting of a commemorative silver coin into 80 pieces, which would be distributed to its members. A month later, with Law 9 of April 5, it was decided to mint coins for trading purposes. The law provided for the concentration of gold and silver, which was in monasteries and churches, as well as the prohibition of the export of gold and silver, not only outside the territory, but also from province to province. The plan, however, was soon abandoned due to inherent weaknesses.
However, the ongoing monetary anomaly forced the first governor of free Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias, to hasten the creation of a national currency. Indeed, on July 28, 1828, the Fourth National Assembly of Argos decided to propose to the Governor as a monetary unit the "palm", with a subdivision of the minute. Lacking cash and machinery, Kapodistrias took out a loan of 1.5 million rubles from Russia and with this money he bought a second-hand minting machine from Malta, which was installed in the yard of his house in Aegina. The first coins of free Greece were printed there, which were the silver phoenix and the bronze ones: ten cents, five cents and one cent. The metal was obtained from the convoys of the Greek fleet (silver) and from the Turkish cannons (copper). On June 17, 1831, the first paper money was printed by decision of the Governor, but without success.
After the enthronement of Othon in 1833, the coins that had been issued and circulated under Kapodistrias were withdrawn from circulation. On February 8, a new monetary unit was introduced, the drachma (currency of the ancient Greek world) instead of the phoenix. By the same decree, the new coins were divided into three categories: silver, gold and copper. The first drachmas were printed in Munich and from 1836 to 1858 they were printed at the Athens Mint. By the royal decree of July 12, 1843, the exclusive right to issue banknotes was given to the newly founded National Bank of Greece, which retained this privilege until 1928, when the Bank of Greece was founded. In the first days of the Occupation, the occupiers put into circulation alongside the drachma, the Occupation Mark, the Occupation Lira, the Mediterranean drachma, the Bulgarian leva and the Albanian franc (April 29, 1941). These coins were without obverse and were quickly withdrawn from circulation (July 18, 1941).
And we arrive at the dawn of the new millennium, when Prime Minister Kostas Simitis submits an application to the competent institutions of the European Union for the country's inclusion in the Euro zone (March 9, 2000). On New Year's Day 2002, in a festive atmosphere, the euro replaces the drachma as the monetary unit of the Greek state. The two coins remained in parallel circulation until February 28, 2002, when from the following day the drachma became a thing of the past, after 169 years of circulation.
