Armenia's declaration of independence in 1918 left the new republic scrambling to establish a functional monetary system while simultaneously fighting wars on multiple fronts — against Azerbaijani forces, Ottoman remnants, and eventually the Red Army. The 1919 rouble series, printed by Waterlow & Sons in London, was ordered abroad because Armenia had no domestic printing capacity whatsoever. Notes reached Yerevan under difficult conditions, and the window of actual circulation was brutally short.
The Armenian Soviet takeover in late 1920 rendered the entire Republican rouble series obsolete almost immediately. Waterlow had also printed banknotes for Georgia and Azerbaijan during the same period, working through a succession of newly independent Caucasian clients with equally uncertain futures.
Armenia's declaration of independence in 1918 left the new republic scrambling to establish a functional monetary system while simultaneously fighting wars on multiple fronts — against Azerbaijani forces, Ottoman remnants, and eventually the Red Army. The 1919 rouble series, printed by Waterlow & Sons in London, was ordered abroad because Armenia had no domestic printing capacity whatsoever. Notes reached Yerevan under difficult conditions, and the window of actual circulation was brutally short.
The Armenian Soviet takeover in late 1920 rendered the entire Republican rouble series obsolete almost immediately. Waterlow had also printed banknotes for Georgia and Azerbaijan during the same period, working through a succession of newly independent Caucasian clients with equally uncertain futures.