1 Apsar The Cathedral of St. George in Elyr

Abkhazia's apsar coinage occupies a genuinely unusual position in numismatics — issued by a state recognized by only a handful of UN members, circulating in a territory that uses the Russian ruble as its de facto currency. The Bank of Abkhazia has produced these pieces largely as collectibles, with domestic circulation essentially nominal.

The Cathedral of St. George in Elyr (Ilori) dates to the 11th century and remains an active Georgian Orthodox pilgrimage site — politically inconvenient geography for an Abkhaz state issue, which underscores the complex relationship between the territory's pre-war cultural inheritance and its post-1993 sovereignty claims.