1000 Drams Ani

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic issued this coin during a period when the unrecognized state was aggressively building a numismatic program as a form of de facto nation-branding — coinage being one of the few tangible expressions of sovereignty available to a territory with no UN recognition. Ani was the medieval Armenian capital, located in present-day northeastern Turkey near the border with Armenia, and its invocation here carries obvious political weight for the NKR's Armenian population.

The city fell to the Seljuk Turks in 1064 and was largely abandoned by the 14th century. Its ruins remain inaccessible to most Armenians.