Greece document photos online

When Greece swapped its banknotes for euros in 2002, it retired the world's oldest surviving currency name. The drachma had been minted, in one form or another, for some 2,500 years, and the word itself comes from an ancient verb meaning "to grasp a handful" - a coin valued at a fistful of iron spits. Its modern run from 1832 was almost ended once before: during the 1941-44 occupation, hyperinflation grew so monstrous that a 100-billion-drachma note was printed, and liberation forced a redenomination of 50 billion old drachmas to a single new one. The final exchange rate to the euro was fixed at 340.75 drachmas.

• Currency The drachma was the world's oldest currency name still in circulation when it was replaced by the euro in 2002, tracing its lineage back roughly 2,500 years to ancient Greek coinage.
• Hyperinflation Wartime hyperinflation in 1944 grew so extreme that Greece printed a 100,000,000,000-drachma banknote, and the post-liberation reset traded 50 billion old drachmas for just one new one.
• Passport power The Greek passport climbed to 5th place worldwide in the Henley Passport Index for 2025, granting visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to around 187 destinations.
• Passport tech Greece's new-generation biometric passport, rolled out in 2024, uses a polycarbonate data page with UV-reactive artwork and an embedded chip storing the holder's facial image.
• Citizenship Greek nationality runs on jus sanguinis - the "right of blood" - so someone whose grandparent or even great-grandparent was registered in a Greek municipal roll can reclaim an EU passport without ever having lived in Greece.
• Dual nationality Greece freely permits dual citizenship, but every descent claim hinges on documents: an unbroken paper chain of birth, marriage and municipal records proving each ancestor held citizenship when the next was born.
• Oldest capital Athens is Europe's oldest continuously inhabited capital, settled for over 5,000 years and carrying a recorded history of roughly 3,400 years.
• Euro pioneer Greece joined the European Communities on 1 January 1981 and became the 12th country to adopt the euro, fixing its old currency at exactly 340.75 drachmas to the euro.
• Conversion oddity The official euro changeover rate of 340.75 drachmas still counted in lepta - hundredths of a drachma - even though inflation had made the lepton practically worthless decades earlier.