Greece 2 drachmai 1911 - George I

The coin's story

This 2 drachmas coin in 835 thousandths silver, dated 1911, belongs to the last series in the name of George I, King of the Hellenes. George I, a Danish prince and younger son of the future King Christian IX, was elected at the age of 17 by the Greek National Assembly and reigned from 1863 until his assassination in Thessaloniki on 18 March 1913. The portrait of the elderly King and the Thetis on the reverse are the work of Georgios Jakobides (Iakovidis), a Greek painter and medallist, a major figure of the Munich School and the first curator of the National Gallery in Athens. The reverse shows the Nereid Thetis, mother of Achilles, seated on a hippocamp and holding her son's shield. The coin was struck at the Paris Mint. It was struck to the standards of the Latin Monetary Union, the drachma then being worth one franc.