25 000 Drams Monument We Are Our Mountains

Artsakh — internationally recognized by virtually no one but operating as a de facto independent republic since the 1994 ceasefire that ended the First Nagorno-Karabakh War — issued this coin three years into an uneasy peace that would hold, fitfully, for another quarter century. The "We Are Our Mountains" monument in Stepanakert, carved from volcanic rock in 1967 by sculptor Sargis Baghdasaryan, had become the defining symbol of Armenian identity in the enclave long before independence was declared.

KM#5 is among the earliest numismatic issues from Artsakh, a territory whose coins circulated nowhere and were legal tender in name only.