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5000 Drachmes 1942, Greece

in Krause book Number: 119b
Years of issue: 20.06.1942
Edition: --
Signatures: Dimitrios Santis, D. Nomikos, M. Pierros
Serie: No Serie
Specimen of: 20.06.1942
Material: Dirt-resistant cotton paper with Anti Soil Treatment
Size (mm): 164 x 83
Printer: Printing works department of Bank of Greece (Idryma Trapezis tis Ellados), Athens

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5000 Drachmes 1942

Description

Watermark:

watermark

Pattern.

Avers:

5000 Drachmes 1942

Nike of Samothrace

Centered depicted the Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace is a II century BC marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory). Since 1884, it has been prominently displayed at the Louvre and is one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world. H.W. Janson described it as "the greatest masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture. The Nike of Samothrace, discovered in 1863, is estimated to have been created around 200-190 BC. It is 8 feet (2.44 meters) high. It was created to not only honor the goddess, Nike, but to honor a sea battle. It conveys a sense of action and triumph as well as portraying artful flowing drapery through its features which the Greeks considered ideal beauty. Now standing in the Louvre, Paris.

On both sides are men workers.

In lower right corner are the sea shore and fisherman.

Factories and the ships are in lower left corner.

Denominations are in all corners.

Revers:

5000 Drachmes 1942

Farmers sow and plow on horses.

On the sides are wheat and olive tree. Beneath are the black grapes.

Nicotiana tabacum

On right and left sides are Cultivated tobacco (Nicotiána tabácum).

It is an annually-grown herbaceous plant. It is found only in cultivation, where it is the most commonly grown of all plants in the Nicotiana genus, and its leaves are commercially grown in many countries to be processed into tobacco. It grows to heights between 1 to 2 meters. Research is ongoing into its ancestry among wild Nicotiana species, but it is believed to be a hybrid of Nicotiana sylvestris, Nicotiana tomentosiformis, and possibly Nicotiana otophora.

In their great first voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus and his expedition were introduced to a plant whose smoke was called tobacco by the natives of Hispaniola. In 1560, Jean Nicot de Villemain brought tobacco seeds and leaves as a "wonder drug" to the French court. In 1586 the botanist Jaques Dalechamps gave the plant the name of Herba nicotiana, which was also adopted by Linné. It was considered a decorative plant at first, then a panacea, before it became a common snuff and tobacco plant. Tobacco arrived in Africa at the beginning of the XVII century. The leaf extract was a popular pest control method up to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1851, the Belgian chemist Jean Stas documented the use of tobacco extract as a murder poison. The Belgian count Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé had poisoned his brother-in-law with tobacco leaf extract in order to acquire some urgently needed money. This was the first exact proof of alkaloids in forensic medicine.

Denominations in numerals are in each corner, on right and left sides. In words at bottom, centered.

Comments:

Banknote with watermarks. Printed on paper, earlier prepared for agricultural bonds.