“The sentence of death for our drachma was passed with the Amsterdam Treaty for the economic and monetary union of Europe (1997), and this decision became immediately executable with Greece’s full integration into the new European economic reality (2000). There is no prospect of a pardon or suspension of the ultimate penalty, and on January 1, 2002, our national currency is led before the firing squad, with an entire amnesiac populace shouting ‘Fire.’ Its remains have been deposited in various antique shops and collectors' albums, and there will be no memorial service…”

This book is nothing less than a farewell to our once-national currency, which is now irrevocably displaced from our history and buried silently in our collective and exceedingly spacious national oblivion. It is a requiem for our drachma, which was more than just a piece of metal with some fluctuating exchange value. It was – above all – an institution of our daily life, a structural element of our dreary existence, a 'given' in the struggle for survival, a habit formed from a young age.

It was our first pocket money, our first purchase at the neighborhood kiosk, our first ticket to the summer cinema, our first day's wage, our first treat, our first pack of unfiltered cigarettes, our first loans that were never paid back… We hope this book will serve as a decent farewell to our departing drachma. So that we older ones do not forget it and for those who will come, in the new eras of international convergences and European globalization.” [Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]