Catalog
2 Dram
| Issuer | Central Bank of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 2 Dram |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The National Coat of Arms of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic appears alongside a bas-relief vignette of a Christian cross, with a secondary scene illustrating John the Baptist baptizing Jesus Christ rendered in a traditional ecclesiastical artistic style. |
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
Nagorno-Karabakh has never achieved internationally recognized sovereignty — it declared independence from Azerbaijan in 1991, but no UN member state has ever formally recognized it. These 2004 dram notes were issued by a central bank that existed in a juridical gray zone, functioning as a monetary authority for a territory whose legal status remained entirely unresolved. The choice of OeBS in Vienna as printer is telling: it signals an attempt at institutional legitimacy, using one of Europe's most established security printers to lend credibility to a currency that most of the world declined to acknowledge.
The series was largely non-circulating in practice, with most notes absorbed by collectors almost immediately after issue.