Archimedes screw is a device used to raise and transport water. Archimedes is said to have invented it while visiting Egypt, probably due to farmers' need to use Nile water for irrigation.

 

It is basically a hollow tube with an upward spiral. When the lower end of the pipe is placed in the water and the auger is turned either manually or mechanically, the water trapped in the spiral coils rises until it reaches the top of the pipe and flows into the irrigation ditches. The invention is described by the Roman architect Vitruvius, and Diodorus Siculus says that it was also used to drain water from mines. Its simplicity and ingenuity made the device popular over time and is still used in similar applications today.

 

The obverse shows Archimedes' screw, while the reverse shows the overall design of the series (with gears, screws and other mechanical objects referencing a series of ancient Greek technological inventions) along with the title and the name of the Greek nation.