Exchanging old Greek Drachmas

*dim*

Hi ... my 1st post here... great site!

my grandfather died suddenly in Greece in the 1960's .... he was a carpenter, and built all the furniture in his home

a short while ago, my aunt was on the farm, and decided to wax the solid oak kitchen table ...

with the neighbours help, they managed to turn it upside down so as to wax the bottom

she saw a lever thingy, depressed it and a secret drawer popped open

in the drawer was a stash of old Drachma notes (nearly 8 million drachma) ... she has given the money to me

I have phoned around to see if it can be exchanged for euros (from what I have calculated, it is worth close to £20 000) .... the people who I have spoken to say that there is a deadline to exchange drachma, however, it is for the post 1980 drachma, and they say the older money is not exchangeable

can anyone confirm? .... my grandfather died in the 1960's, so most of the money will be pre-1960's (all notes and not coins)

xylophone

http://www.bankofgreece.gr/Pages/en/Euro/drachma.aspx#tra
"The Bank of Greece will be exchanging drachma banknotes until 1 March 2012."

Looks as though you'd better be quick?

sleepless_saver

Contact the National Central Bank of Greece and ask them.

Exchange of former national currency: The National Central Bank of Greece exchanged drachma coins until 1 March 2004 and will continue to exchange drachma banknotes until 1 March 2012.

*dim*

thanks ... as far as I was told, they refuse pre-1980 notes?

xylophone

Have you phoned the National Central Bank of Greece?
http://www.bankofgreece.gr/pages/en/other/communication.aspx

*dim*

thanks for the link ... I have emailed the National central bank of Greece

*dim*

thanks xylophone .... tried to phone earlier, spoke to a guy and he said that they are closed until tommorow morning, so have sent an email a few minutes ago

JezR

A number of European countries routinely used to make old banknotes worthless after a 10-20 year period, unlike the Bank of England which will pay the face value of any note it ever issued.

This site might help identify what you have:

http://greekcurrency.110mb.com/en_1954_2001.htm (Has an associated forum, in Greek.)

There may be collector value in some of the notes, but the condition would then become important.

*dim*

thanks JezR ...i checked that link you gave and the money was printed between 1941 and 1944

Porcupine

That gets more interesting, because they're wartime notes from the Nazi occupation. But it's not good news, because (like many occupied countries) there was hyperinflation, and:

Many banknotes were printed between 1941 and 1944 by various lithographers in the country in huge denominations, due to the galloping inflation; the last one, 100 billion drachmas, was printed on 5 November 1944.

Emergency Law 18/11 November 1944 established the first monetary reform, stating that one postwar drachma would equal 50 billion war drachmas.

The first postwar banknotes that were put into circulation on 11 November 1944 were those of 50 and 100 drachmas and depict the Nike of Samothrace and the portrait of captain Konstantinos Kanaris.

According to that, 8 million war drachmas is worth 0.00016 postwar drachmas. Then another devaluation in 1954 at 1:1000.

So, you're the proud owner of 0.00000016 drachmas in 2001, or 0.00000000046955 euro. Spend your 470 picoeuro wisely!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news However your notes are quite possibly interesting to collectors, especially if they're in good condition.

Biggles

*dim* wrote: »

thanks JezR ...i checked that link you gave and the money was printed between 1941 and 1944

Wow! That obviously makes a lot of difference. Sadly.

Nevertheless, I shall always make a point of waxing the bottom of any kitchen tables in future - who'd have thought of doing that??