10 Dram

Armenia's first national currency, the dram, was introduced in November 1993 to replace the Soviet ruble — itself already a chaotic patchwork of Soviet-era notes and Russian Federation issues that had flooded the newly independent republic. The 10 Dram was among the founding denominations of that inaugural series, printed by Giesecke & Devrient in Leipzig at a moment when Armenia was simultaneously managing post-Soviet economic collapse and an active war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

G&D had extensive experience producing currency for former Soviet successor states during this period, handling security printing for several newly independent nations at once. The watermark is the sole security feature — modest by later standards, but reflecting both the urgency of issue and the fiscal constraints of a country that had been independent for under two years.