Greece P202 1000 Drachmes 1987 FVF—Apollo—Discus Thrower—Temple of Hera

A rich brown note celebrating the birthplace of the Olympic Games — pairing the god of light and reason with the most iconic image of athletic perfection ever sculpted, set against the ancient sanctuary where champions were crowned.

Front

• Colors:
  • Brown on multicolor underprint
• Portrait: Bust of Apollo of Olympia at center — based on the famous marble sculpture from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, c. 460 BC
• Design elements: Ancient Greek silver stater coin from Olympia, Elis at lower left (depicting Zeus on obverse, eagle on reverse); bank name and face value at left; watermark window at right
• Security: Vertical security strip approximately 34mm from left edge
• Signatures: Dimitrios Chalikias, Gov.; Charal. Skouras, Manager
• Engraver: Georgios Angelopoulos
• Designer: Nikos Nikolaou

Back

• Colors:
  • Brown on multicolor underprint
• Sculpture: Discobolus (discus thrower) by Myron of Eleutherae at left
• Building: Temple of Hera at Ancient Olympia at center
• Engravers: Ioannis Pipinis, Eleonora Perraki-Pipinis

Other Characteristics

• Catalog numbers: P-202; Numista N#203471
• Watermark: Charioteer of Delphi, dedicated to Polyzalos
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 158 × 77 mm
• Issuing entity: Bank of Greece (Τράπεζα της Ελλάδος)
• Printer: Banknote and Currency Printing Office (Ίδρυμα Εκτυπώσεως Τραπεζογραμματίων και Αξιών), Athens
• Demonetized: Demonetized: March 1, 2002
• Signatures: Dimitrios Chalikias, Gov.; Charal. Skouras, Manager
• Currency: Third modern drachma (1954–2001)

The God of Light, Reason, and Beauty

Apollo — god of the sun, music, poetry, prophecy, and reason — was perhaps the most beloved of all the Olympian gods, and certainly the most Greek in spirit. The bust on this note is modeled after the Apollo of Olympia, a towering marble figure carved around 460 BC for the west pediment of the Temple of Zeus. He is shown with arm outstretched, commanding order over chaos — a fitting image for a deity who represented the Greek ideal of sophrosyne, or balanced self-mastery. His sanctuary at Delphi was the spiritual center of the ancient Greek world, where the famous Oracle delivered prophecies to kings and generals for nearly a thousand years. The silver stater coin at lower left — minted in Elis, the region that administered Olympia — depicts Zeus on one side and an eagle on the other, a reminder that Olympia was sacred ground long before the first athlete competed there.

The Frozen Moment That Defined an Era

The Discobolus — the discus thrower — was created by the Athenian sculptor Myron of Eleutherae around 450 BC, and it may be the single most influential sculpture in Western art history. The original bronze is lost; what survives are Roman marble copies, one of which inspired this banknote. What makes it extraordinary is its subject: Myron captured an athlete at the precise instant of maximum tension before release — a frozen moment of pure kinetic energy that no sculptor had attempted before. It became the defining image of the Greek athletic ideal and was revived as a symbol of the modern Olympic movement when the Games returned to Athens in 1896. The Temple of Hera behind it, built around 600 BC, is the oldest surviving temple at Olympia — and it is here that the Olympic flame is still lit today before every modern Games.

About Greece

• Origin of name: "Greece" derives from the Latin Graecia, the Roman name for the region; Greeks call their country Hellas (Ελλάδα), from Hellen, the mythological ancestor of the Greek people
• Capital: Athens — city pop. ~665,000; metro pop. ~3.6 million
  • Origin of name: Named after Athena, goddess of wisdom, who won a contest with Poseidon for patronage of the city by gifting an olive tree
• Population: ~10.4 million (UN 2023) — comparable to Michigan or Portugal
• Area: 131,957 km² / 50,949 mi² — comparable to Alabama or England
• GDP per capita at PPP: ~$40,000 (IMF 2024)
• Main exports: Petroleum products, aluminum, pharmaceuticals, olive oil, cotton, fruits
• Borders: Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria (north); Turkey (northeast); surrounded by the Aegean, Ionian, and Mediterranean seas
• Official/spoken languages: Greek
• Ethnicities: Greek (~91%), Albanian, Roma, and others
• Memberships: United Nations (founding member, 1945); NATO (1952); European Union (1981); Council of Europe (founding member, 1949)
• Sovereignty: Ancient city-states → Macedonian Empire → Roman/Byzantine rule → Ottoman Empire (1453–1821) → Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) → Kingdom of Greece (1832–1974) → Third Hellenic Republic (1974–date)

Greece Unfiltered

• Cradle of democracy: Athens introduced the world's first democratic system around 508 BC under Cleisthenes — though only free male citizens could vote
• Debt crisis: Greece triggered the 2010 European sovereign debt crisis, receiving the largest financial bailout in history at the time (~€289 billion), and endured a decade of brutal austerity
• Islands: Greece has over 6,000 islands, of which only about 227 are inhabited — making it one of the most island-rich countries on Earth
• Ancient legacy: The Olympic Games originated in Olympia, Greece, in 776 BC — held every four years for over a millennium before being banned by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I in 393 AD
• Shipping power: Greece controls the largest merchant shipping fleet in the world by tonnage — a modern echo of its ancient maritime dominance
• Brain drain: Since the 2010 debt crisis, an estimated 500,000 Greeks — many of them young and educated — emigrated, one of the largest brain drains in modern European history
• Mythology everywhere: Over 40% of English words have Greek roots — from "democracy" to "telephone" to "galaxy"

Own this FVF 1000 Drachmes and hold the birthplace of the Olympics in your hands — Apollo's timeless gaze on the front, the world's most famous athlete frozen mid-throw on the back, and the oldest Olympic temple standing behind him.