50 000 Drams Artavasdes II of Armenia

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic issued this coin in 1998 while still in the fragile aftermath of the 1994 ceasefire that ended the First Nagorno-Karabakh War — a territory unrecognized by any UN member state, producing legal-tender coinage as a deliberate assertion of statehood. Artavasdes II is an pointed choice of subject: the Armenian king who ruled from roughly 55 to 34 BC was captured by Mark Antony following the disastrous Roman campaign against Parthia, paraded in Alexandria in golden chains, and eventually executed by Cleopatra.

The five-ounce format places this squarely in the proof bullion issues produced for the collector export market, the hard currency proceeds mattering far more than domestic circulation.