domingo, 20 de enero de 2013

Armenia. 50 Dram. Regions.

Armenia is a little euro-asiatic country of three million inhabitants. It is located between Iran and Turkey. As a curiosity, Armenia was the first nation to accept Christianism as its official religion, and Armenia has belonged to several and different countries: USSR, Byzantine empire or Persian empire.

Since 1993, Armenia's currency is the dram. Nowadays, there are coins of 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 dram into circulation (but they don't circulate at all, because of their low value: 1 USD is 370 Dram).

This collection consists of 11 coins that represent de eleven provinces (marzer in local language) that form Armenia.

The coins weigh 3,5 grams and are made of steel-brass. They have a common reverse, which is the same of the circulating 50 dram coin.


In the obverse, there are inscriptions in armenian (such as the name of the province). The upper says "50 Dram - Republic of Armenia", and the lower one is the name of each province. The central motif is something typical of the region that the coin represents.



Aragatsotn: Byurakan Observatory.
Ararat: Khor Virap and mount Ararat on the background.
Armavir: Sardarapat Memorial.
Gegharkunik: Sevanavank.
Kotayk: Garni Temple.
Lori: Monastery complex of Haghpat.
Shirak: Phaeton and house in Gyumri.
Syunik: Syunik Gates.
Tavush: Tavush fortress.
Vayots Dzor: Caucasian goat.
Yerevan: Statute of David of Sasoun on the background of the image of Yerevan railway Station.




To sum up.

  • Topic: Armenian provinces.
  • Size of the collection: 11 coins.
  • Price: Today, we can see it in ebay around 10-15$.
  • Popularity: It's a new collection, so we don't exactly know how collectors will consider this collection.
  • Beauty: The coins are cute and a bit small. The curves make them different.
If you want the official information, you can visit the website of the Central Armenian Bank. Please remember to click in the images to see them full-sized, and make a comment if you want so suggest something.

Hello

Hello to everybody. This blog is the English version of my Spanish blog "Colecciones de monedas". From now, I'll try to translate all the posts in the other blog, and in the future, I'll make every post bilingual. Nothing more to say. Enjoy.