★ Extremely Rare ★

Greece
British Military Authority
1 Pound, (1943-1945)
S/N 39Z000036
Pick M6d; Pitidis 440
Overpint GREECE

Extremely rare.

 Graded About Uncirculated 50 EPQ.

When British troops liberated Greece in October of 1944, military banknotes circulated with 1 pound being equivalent to 600 new drachmas.

Among this series exists this very rare variety of the 1 pound with "GREECE" in black overprint. It is known that they had a special prefix 39Z with serial numbers from 000026 to 000050 making them only 25 examples. Fysikas in his article explains that the purpose behind this overprint is unknown but speculates that the British did not want to add the name or letter of each country prior to their arrival in case the Axis got hold of them and revealed their plans to invade. After counter-stamping a few examples locally, they realised how impractical it was and abandoned the idea which had little merit in the first place.

The second explanation offered is that these notes were produced for deception purposes and carried by select British officers who would attempt to deceive the Axis into believing they would invade these regions. Similar notes exist for Bulgaria and France.

In June of 1945 all Military Authority notes were withdrawn making these notes extremely rare.