50 Drams We Are Our Mountains

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic — also known as Artsakh — issued coins not as functional currency but as assertion: a statelet unrecognized by any UN member issuing coinage under a central bank name to reinforce the apparatus of sovereignty. This 2020 issue appeared the same year the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War broke out in September, a 44-day conflict in which Azerbaijani forces, backed by Turkish military support and Syrian mercenaries, recaptured the majority of the territory. The ceasefire agreement of November 10, 2020 effectively ended Artsakh's control over much of the land these coins were minted to symbolize.

"We Are Our Mountains" references the Soviet-era sculptural monument near Stepanakert, locally called Tatik-Papik — Grandmother and Grandfather — which became the most recognizable symbol of Armenian identity in the region.