EPIRUS

Although home to warlike clans that had made the mountainous area of Souli a bastion of Greek resistance against the Ottomans, Epirus was left out of the first Greek State and was only liberated from Ottoman rule after the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. Portrayed on the coin is Athanasios Tsakalof, one of the three founders of the Friendly Society (Philike Etaireia). Born in Ioannina, the Epirote capital, Tsakalof studied in Paris and then moved to Russia, where he met Nikolaos Skoufas and Emmanuel Xanthos. Together, in Odessa in 1814, they founded the Friendly Society, which was to play a key role in the preparation of the Greek uprising. Tsakalof was instrumental in the expansion of the Society and its major decisions. He participated as a fighter in the Greek War of Independence and later served the newly established Greek State with selflessness and humility.