1000 Drams Christianity in Armenia

Artsakh — the self-declared republic occupying the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region — issued commemorative coinage in the early 2000s largely as an assertion of statehood, recognized by virtually no UN member. This 2003 piece marks the 1700th anniversary of Armenia's adoption of Christianity in 301 AD, when King Tiridates III converted following his reported cure by Gregory the Illuminator, making Armenia the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion.