Nagorno-Karabakh banknotes are among the rarest and most historically charged collectibles in the world of paper money. Issued by the Republic of Artsakh (also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), these notes circulated in a landlocked enclave nestled in the South Caucasus — a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but governed for three decades by ethnic Armenians following the brutal First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988–1994).

The republic's banknotes were never widely distributed and were produced in extremely limited quantities, making surviving examples genuinely scarce. The notes were designed and printed with the assistance of Armenia, which provided critical financial, logistical, and political support to the breakaway state throughout its existence. Armenian expertise shaped both the aesthetic and technical production of the currency, and the notes reflect strong cultural ties to Armenian heritage — featuring Armenian script, national symbols, and imagery drawn from the region's ancient Christian monasteries and landscapes.

The Republic of Artsakh ceased to exist in September 2023, when Azerbaijan launched the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive that ended the enclave's self-governance after 35 years. The remaining Armenian population — nearly 100,000 people — fled to Armenia in what is widely described as an ethnic exodus. The republic was formally dissolved on January 1, 2024.

These banknotes are now historical artifacts of a vanished state — currency from a country that no longer exists, issued by a government that has been dissolved, in a territory now emptied of the people who once called it home.

The Man Behind the Notes: David Laties & Educational Coin Company

Many of these notes exist because of one remarkable figure in the numismatic world: David Laties, owner of the Educational Coin Company, based in Highland, New York. Laties took ownership of the company in 1960 and transformed it into one of the most prolific sources of world banknotes for collectors.

For territories like Nagorno-Karabakh — places that lacked the political standing or infrastructure to produce currency through traditional channels — Laties acted as an unofficial bridge to sovereignty. Working with professional banknote printers, he designed and produced high-quality notes that looked and felt like legal tender, using them to document and promote the history and identity of these regions. Unlike cheap fantasy notes, Educational Coin Co. productions often incorporated genuine security features — watermarked paper, intricate guilloché patterns, and fine intaglio printing — making them indistinguishable from official government issues to the untrained eye.

Laties recognized a collector demand for the missing pieces of world monetary history and provided the capital and design direction to fill those gaps — typically in small runs, which is precisely why these notes are now prized for their scarcity.

Why Collect Nagorno-Karabakh Banknotes?

• Issued by one of only five recent de facto states with limited international recognition that issued banknotes (the others are Abkhazia, Somaliland, South Ossetia, and Transnistria)
• Produced with the involvement of David Laties and Educational Coin Company — the gold standard in private world banknote issues
• Extremely low print runs — far scarcer than most 20th-century issues
• Reflect Armenian cultural and artistic heritage in a contested landscape
• Now permanently out of production — the issuing authority no longer exists
• A compelling piece of post-Soviet geopolitical history