50 000 Dram

Armenia's highest-denomination banknote at the time of issue, the 50,000 Dram was produced by Thomas De La Rue at a moment when the dram itself was only eight years old — introduced in 1993 to replace the Soviet ruble following independence. The denomination reflects the cumulative effect of the hyperinflationary period of the early 1990s, during which Armenia's economy contracted severely under the combined pressure of the post-Soviet transition, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and an energy blockade that left much of the country without heat or electricity for years.

De La Rue's involvement gave the series a level of technical security credibility the young central bank could not have produced domestically.