I need help identifying the country that this currency is from. I believe it to be Greece but I have not seen any other image on the internet for this.
It says something about 1/5 drachma on the side and "Hellenic Democracy" on the top line, I think. 20 lepta = 1/5 drachma, which would be a pretty small denomination for 1977. There were coins for much larger denominations in the late 1970s already. Could it be some sort of ticket or scrip?
I have some entrance tickets to the Acropolis that I saved from the last time I visited Athens.. (Ages ago) They look very similar! J.T.
It looks more like a ticket for an event or venue than it does currency. The “serial number” is the same on all of them. Edited photo of OP’s photo. A little easier on your neck.
It's definitely Greek and from Greece. The letters are in all capitals. The upper left cross symbol is the coat of arms of Greece or "Hellenic Republic" (see link below). ΛΑΪΚΟΝ ΛΑΧΕΙΟΝ appears to refer to lottery tickets. Translated, the words spell "LAIKON LACHEION" which brings up "lottery tickets" in a search. These are likely tickets for the 1977 Greek National Lottery. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ = "Greek Republic" ΙΟΥΛΙΟΥ = "July" ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ = "Drachmai" ΤΑ ΚΕΡΔΗ ΘΑ ΠΛΗΡΩΣΙ ΜΕΧΡΙ 4 ΝΟΕΜΒΡΙΟΥ 1977 ΕΠΙ ΤΗ ΠΡΟΧΑΓΩΓΗ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΡΟΝΤΟΣ ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΙΟΥ = "You will pay the weights until November 4, 1977 on the promotion of the secretary" (this sounds a little off) ΕΝ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΣ ΤΗ 24 ΦΕΒΡΟΥΑΡΙΟΥ 1977 = "In Athens on February 24, 1977"
If in fact those are lottery tickets, how would they be differentiated between them? There doesn't appear to be any unique discriminating markings. Edit: I guess we'd need to see the reverse side to figure that out
In the bottom left and right corner of each ticket are different Greek letters (Ε, Γ, Δ), so by that alone each one of these is unique. But yes, there may be more information on the back as well. Here is also a page showing more recent Greek lottery tickets and they share a lot of the characteristics of the one above. One difference is that "ΛΑΪΚΟΝ ΛΑΧΕΙΟΝ" has become "ΛΑΪΚΟ ΛΑΧΕΙΟ" and "ΛΑΪΚΟ ΛΑΧΕΙΟ" translates to "People's Lottery." Older references to the lottery seem to have the extra "N" letter.
It's of course greek lottery tickets. The full ticket was a strip of five coupons bearing the same serial number with a different letter code for each one i.e. the greek letters Α,Β,Γ,Δ and Ε. On the back you would see the money prizes for the winning tickets. If you had only one coupon and the winning number you would get only the 1/5th of the prize. The specific lottery ticket is very common. It was introduced in the 1940's and it is still available today.
