100 Drachma Note (1922)

A 100 drachma note from the National Bank of Greece, issued in 1922. In March 1922, Minister of Finance Petros Protopapadakis took a 100 drachma note from his pocket in parliament and, to the derisive laughter of the chamber, cut it in two. The note was divided in the middle: the left half, with the portrait of Georgios Stavros, could be exchanged for new currency at half its face value, while the right half, with the crown, became a forced loan, convertible into a 20-year bond with 6.5% annual interest. The bill was passed by a vote of 151 to 148. No freely licensed photograph of an actual cut note could be found; this is an image of an identical note before it was cut.