Description

The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution, was a successful war of independence waged by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1830. The Greeks were later assisted by Great Britain, France and Russia, while the Ottomans were aided by their North African vassals, particularly the eyalet of Egypt. The war led to the formation of modern Greece. The revolution is celebrated by Greeks around the world as independence day on 25 March.

After nine years of war, Greece was finally recognized as an independent state under the London Protocol of February 1830. Further negotiations in 1832 led to the London Conference and the Treaty of Constantinople; these defined the final borders of the new state and established Prince Otto of Bavaria as the first king of Greece.

By virtue of King Otto’s Royal Decree of 8 February 1833, the drachma replaced the phoenix and, in August 1833, public revenue offices were explicitly prohibited from accepting the Ottoman currency. As stipulated in the same decree, the drachma was to be issued in gold, silver and copper. In a similar vein, the capital was moved from Nafplion to Athens, in order to symbolically reconnect with Greece’s glorious past.

Engraver: Geórgios Stamatópoulos