Armenian dram

Аrmenia – Armenian dram

Dram is translated in English as “money”, and is cognate with the Greek word "drahma", and it is subdivided into 100 items called luma.

The first instance of the dram currency was in the period from 1199 to 1375, and in the newest history of dram currency it has been the official monetary item since 1993, and existed in parallel for a while with the Russian rubla.

At the moment banknotes in circulation have nominal values of 1000, 5000, 10 000, 20 000, 50 000 and 100 000 drama.

The first series of coins was minted in 1994 in denominations of:  10, 20, and 50 luma and1, 3, 5, 10 dram.  The second series of coins is from 2003, with denominations of: 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 dram.

The present coins and banknotes have been in circulation since 1998, with one exception – the banknote of 50 000 dram, which has been in circulation since 2001 to observe the 1700-anniversary of the adoption of Christianity in Armenia.