50 Dram Shirak

The Shirak series of Armenian regional coins, issued from 2012 onward, was part of a broader program celebrating Armenia's historic provinces — territories whose borders largely reflect medieval administrative divisions rather than modern political ones. Shirak, in the northwest, was among the most contested of these regions throughout Armenian history, having passed through Urartian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, and Seljuk control before any concept of a fixed Armenian state solidified.

The brass-plated steel composition adopted for this series was a deliberate cost-reduction measure following similar moves by neighboring post-Soviet states facing pressure on base metal procurement costs.