500 Lari

The 500 Lari was the highest denomination issued when Georgia introduced its permanent currency in 1995, replacing the short-lived coupon — the "laris" — that had itself only been introduced in 1993 to displace the Russian ruble following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Getting to a stable, professionally printed national currency in two years, against the backdrop of civil conflict in Abkhazia and the economic collapse that gutted Georgian GDP through the early 1990s, was no small administrative achievement.

Oberthur's Rennes facility handled the print run. The security specification for this issue is notably lean — watermark only, without the thread or color-shifting ink that would appear in later Georgian issues.