Armenian Art and Animals

By Dan Lewis | Mon, 4 Jun 2007

A newcomer to the numismatic scene, this landlocked nation is making its mark with creative, high-quality coinage.

A fairly recent addition to the many countries producing non-circulating, legal-tender coins (NCLTs) is Armenia. What the nation lacks in minting experience, it more than makes up for in the quality and innovation of its coinage designs. This month, I'll take a look at two of the most recent coin series from this emerging democracy.

Armenia is a mountainous country in the Southern Caucasus, situated between the Black and Caspian Seas. It is completely landlocked, sharing borders with Turkey,Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran. Formerly a republic of the Soviet Union, Armenia is a democratic nation-state and one of the oldest civilizations in the world. It was the first to adopt Christianity as its official religion and, although constitutionally a secular state, it embraces the faith for the major role it has played in its history and cultural identity.

Armenia's wildlife is as distinctive as its geography. A 24-coin series of legal-tender silver crowns issued by the Central Bank of Armenia is part of the international "Wild World of Caucasus" program. The country plans to issue four coins a year, and, if the quality of the first two pieces is any indication, this series has the potential to be anon-circulating, legal-tender classic.

Although officially listed as "brilliant uncirculated" on the Central Bank of Armenia's website (www.cba.am), the 100-dram coins appear to be deep-mirror proof like and probably would be called proofs by most other issuing authorities. Each 38.61mm specimen contains 28.28g of .925 fine silver and is limited to 3,000 pieces.

Just released is a rectangular, 100-dram, brilliant-uncirculated silver crown that honors Hovhannes (Ivan) Aivazovsky (July 29, 1817-May 5, 1900), a Russian painter of Armenian descent. Born in Feodosiya, Russia, he graduated first in his class from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. His early seascapes and landscapes made him widely popular throughout Russia and Europe and offered him an opportunity to travel and exhibit his works, which totaled more than 6,000 pieces by the end of his career.

The obverse of the coin depicts a portion of his well-known work Storm, while the reverse shows a fragment of his painting The Battle of Chesme. Issued under the international numismatic program "Painters of the World," the .925 fine silver coin measures 28 x 40mm.