€uro, US Dollar (and the Drachma) in Greece

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Last updated July 10, 2026

The drachma was the currency used in Ancient Greece.

During the Ottoman occupation of Greece (1453–1821) the currency varied with marketplaces using varieties of Venetian ducats, Austrian thalers (especially the Maria Theresa thaler), Spanish dollars ("pieces of eight"), French Napoleons, and British sovereigns. The Ottoman rulers officially used:

the Akçe (silver coin)
the Para
the Kuruş (Piastre), introduced in the late 17th century
the Ottoman Lira, introduced in 1844 (after Greek independence, but still circulating in Ottoman territories)

Following the Greek War of Independence, the first governor of the newly independent Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias, announced Greece's first modern national currency in January 1828 to be marked with a Phoenix (Φοίνιξ) the name by which the coin type was referred. The coin was introduced into public currency in 1829.

The Phoenix denomination system

1 Phoenix (silver)
Copper fractions such as:
1 lepton
5 lepta
10 lepta
20 lepta

The lepton (λεπτόν) was the subdivision of the Phoenix. The lepto remained the subdivision for modern drachma until Greece adopted the euro.

King Otto replaced the Phoenix with the modern drachma in 1833.

Drachma Modern Timeline

June 19, 2000

EU leaders approved Greece's entry into the euro area, Kostas Simitis Prime Minister (of PASOK, January 22, 1996 – March 24, 2004).

January 1, 2001

Greece officially joined the eurozone. The euro became Greece's official currency for accounting, banking, government finances, and electronic transactions. The drachma continued to be used as cash by the public

The conversion rate was permanently fixed at 340.750 drachmas = €1.00. This continues to be the fixed rate.

January 1, 2002

Euro banknotes and coins go into official circulation in Greece. THe public begins using euros for purchases.

January 1 to February 28, 2002

The euro and drachma circulate together. People would pay for purchases in drachmas and receive change in euros.

Feb 28, 2002 at midnight

The drachma ceased to be legal tender.

March 2002

The euro became the only legal currency for everyday transactions in Greece.

July 2022 €uro to US Dollar converter tool - wise.com

MEDIA STORIES

Mitsotakis on TIF and Drachma supporters

April 3, 2025: Story at Skai [Greek]

What you should know about US Dollar to Euro in Greece, 2022

July 2022: Story at MSN News [English]

Estimated 500 million drachmas still being held

December 27, 2021: Story at Imerisia [Greek]

Remember when Greece had a one-hundred-billion Drachma bank note?

Dec 28, 2021: It was in November 1944 – story at Greek City Times [English]

SYRIZA currency plan meant printing drachma in Russia

October 15, 2019: Story at SKAI [Greek]

Lafazanis: We would have printed drachmas in 2015

July 5, 2018: Story at Liberal GR [Greek]

Greece looks to become top tourism destination in the world

March 10, 2017: Story at Neoskosmos

When asked if he thought the number of tourists would increase if Greece were to leave the eurozone, he rejected the idea as disastrous for local inhabitants.

If Greece returns to the drachma we will have millions of tourists, but Greeks will be [living] in a ghetto, behind a wall that will separate them from the tourist areas, in the logic of the Caribbean. It would be an absolute disaster," he [SETE Andreas Andreadis] said..."

More about Greek tourism

Five SYRIZA hardliners say prefer drachma to austerity

July 10, 2015: Story at ekathimerini

Fearing return to drachma, some Greeks use Bitcoin to dodge capital controls

July 4, 2015: Story at ekathimerini

May 20, 2013

Plan B to take Greece to drachma - Enet English

"Plan B, as the party is called, is the brainchild of Alekos Alavanos, the former leader of Syriza. "Greece is a now a country with no achievement. It’s a society that has lost its self-confidence and its perspective for the future," Alavanos told EnetEnglish. "We cannot wait one day," he said, "Because Greece is dying. There is a generation of people who have never known work. Young people are starting to forget what they studied." Unemployment for the 18-24 age group now stands at 64 percent.

Alavanos believes that Greece can only rebound under a devalued currency, because the euro is making Greek products and services expensive to overseas buyers and to other Greeks. "There is not even one example in the last century of a developed country like Greece that has been in a recession, in a depression, to find its way out with a hard currency. Now we have as our own currency the currency of the Germans," he says.
...Alavanos led Synaspismos, the main party in Syriza, and paved the way for his nephew, Syriza's current leader, Alexis Tsipras, to rise to the top. But the two had a falling out in 2010 over whose protege would carry the nomination for Athens prefect in the local elections, and Alavanos lost out. He now believes that Syriza has left voters without any real alternative to austerity by compromising too far with the troika... "