2 Dram

Nagorno-Karabakh has never achieved internationally recognized sovereignty — it declared independence from Azerbaijan in 1991, but no UN member state has ever formally recognized it. These 2004 dram notes were issued by a central bank that existed in a juridical gray zone, functioning as a monetary authority for a territory whose legal status remained entirely unresolved. The choice of OeBS in Vienna as printer is telling: it signals an attempt at institutional legitimacy, using one of Europe's most established security printers to lend credibility to a currency that most of the world declined to acknowledge.

The series was largely non-circulating in practice, with most notes absorbed by collectors almost immediately after issue.