100 Dram Caucasian Wildcat

Armenia's wildlife conservation series drew little international attention when issued, but the Caucasian wildcat (Felis silvestris caucasica) depicted here occupies genuinely precarious ecological ground — the subspecies faces persistent pressure from habitat fragmentation across the South Caucasus and interbreeding with feral domestic cats, which geneticists consider a more insidious threat than outright hunting. The Central Bank issued this coin the same year Armenia was deepening its engagement with EU environmental frameworks, though the connection was likely coincidental rather than programmatic.