2023 Greece €6 Silver Proof Coin "Athens Polytechnic Uprising 50 Years"

• Mint: Bank of Greece
• Denomination: €6
• Quality: Proof
• Issue limit: 2,000 pcs.
• Alloy: 92.5% Sterling Silver
• Diameter: 28.5 mm
• Weight: 10 grams
• Design: M. Antonatou
• Box/Capsule: Yes/Yes
• Certificate: Yes

Additional Information

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This issue honors the 50th anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic Uprising of November 17, 1973.

The military coup of April 21, 1967 overthrew democracy and imposed a brutal dictatorship. University students’ organised reaction, triggered by the forcible conscription of unionised students, effectively started in February 1973 with the occupation of the Athens Law School, which was violently suppressed.

On November 14, students occupied the Athens Polytechnic, chanting “Down with the junta”, “Democracy” and “Bread, Education, Freedom” and using their improvised radio station to call the people of Athens to a general strike and revolt. Over the next days, crowds gathered outside the Polytechnic in support. Against the insurgents the junta sent the police and, later, military force. In the early hours of November 17, a tank crashed through the central gate of the Polytechnic. A ruthless crackdown across Athens followed, ending with thousands of civilians arrested, hundreds wounded and 30 dead.

The Athens Polytechnic uprising marked the culmination of anti-junta resistance, led to the removal of dictator Papadopoulos and precipitated the fall of the military regime in July 1974.