Armenian dram

Armenian dram
Հայկական Դրամ  (Armenian)
A 100,000 (haryur hazar) Armenian dram banknote, the highest denominated banknote in circulation.
ISO 4217
Code	AMD
Denominations
Subunit
1/100	luma (լումա) (not used)
Symbol
Banknotes
Freq. used	1000, 5000, 10 000, 20 000, 50 000, 100 000 dram
Rarely used	50, 100, 500 dram
Coins	10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 dram
Demographics
User(s)	Armenia  Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Issuance
Central bank	Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia
Website	www.cba.am
Valuation
Inflation	4.5% (Armenia only)
Source	The World Factbook, 2007 est.
Pegged with	Nagorno-Karabakh dram

The dram (Armenian: Դրամ; sign: ; code: AMD) is the monetary unit of Armenia. It is subdivided into 100 luma (Armenian: ). The word "dram" translates into English as "money" and is cognate with the Greek drachma and the Arabic dirham. The first instance of a dram currency was in the period from 1199 to 1375, when silver coins called dram were issued.

On 21 September 1991, a national referendum proclaimed Armenia as an independent republic from the Soviet Union. The Central Bank of Armenia, established on 27 March 1993, was given the exclusive right of issuing the national currency.

In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union attempts were made to maintain a common currency (the Russian ruble) among CIS states. Armenia joined this rublezone. However it soon became clear that maintaining a currency union in the unstable political and economical circumstances of the post-Soviet states would be very difficult. The rublezone effectively collapsed with the unilateral monetary reform in Russia, 1993. As result the states that were still participating (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Moldova, Armenia and Georgia) were 'pushed out' and forced to introduce separate currencies. Armenia was one of the last countries to do so when it introduced the dram on 22 November 1993.