Otto Drachma

The Otto Drachma's most intriguing feature is that it was minted using equipment shipped from Bavaria, where King Otto hailed from, turning a foreign royal's whim into Greece's first modern currency.

These coins, produced from 1833 to 1862, typically featured Otto's profile on the obverse and the Greek coat of arms on the reverse, all struck in silver or copper. Mintage varied by year, but exact figures for many issues remain murky due to incomplete records from the era's administrative chaos. Some planchets were recycled from older European coins, a practical nod to Greece's limited resources post-independence.

That said, not every Otto Drachma survived intact; corrosion from the Mediterranean climate took its toll. The 1844 restrike, for instance, used worn dies, resulting in coins that look as fatigued as I feel after decades of handling them.