The currency of Armenia is the dram. Dram is officially abbreviated in correspondence with the symbol Դ, which can be represented with the Unicode character code U + 058F. The currency’s unofficial abbreviations are d. or dr. The ISO code is AMD.
History of the Armenian Currency
In November 1993, two years after Armenia gained independence through the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the dram was introduced as the official currency. It replaced the Russian ruble with it. In addition to Armenia, the internationally unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is legally part of Azerbaijan, also uses the dram as its official currency.
The Armenian economy changed significantly with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The reorientation was heavily burdened by the military conflicts with Azerbaijan over control of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Only in 2004 did Armenia regain the economic performance of 1990, only to be hit very hard by the international financial crisis. However, thanks to large loans from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and Russia, the Armenian Dram recovered and was able to stabilize.
The financial policy of the Central Bank of Armenia is very strictly aimed at combating inflation. This is welcomed internationally. In 2012 the inflation rate was officially 2.6 percent. The currency reserves of Armenia stood at 1.631 billion US dollars in the first quarter of 2013.
Exchange into Armenian Dram
The rate at which the Euro can be exchanged for Dram can be easily determined using the currency converter. There are notes in circulation to the value of 100,000, 50,000, 20,000, 10,000, 5,000 and 1,000 dram. The coins are in denominations of 500, 200, 100, 50, 20 and 10 dram. Travelers are advised to change money only in Armenia.