Numismatics

The intense commercial activity of the Armenians, owing to their territory being located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, meant that a national trading currency had to be created.
- The first coins were minted in the 3rd century BC by the Armenian kings of Sophene: bronze coins of Charaspes, Arsames, Abdassares, Xerxes.
- From the 2nd century BC onwards, the Artaxiads minted a number of bronze coins and beautiful silver tetradrachms inscribed in Greek with the effigy of their kings, including Tigranes II, in the workshops of Antioch, Artashat and Damascus.
- The last stage came after centuries since, with the exception of a copper coin bearing the effigy of Christ, minted in Greater Armenia by king Kiurike, it was necessary to wait for the establishment of the Cilician Lesser Armenia to reach the final, but very important, stage in history of Armenian currency, where silver coins: the double tram, tram, half-tram and takvorin, or copper coins: the tank, kardez and pogh (pronounced ""porh""), and exceptionally gold, were minted by six barons and fourteen kings, from 1080 to 1375, from Ruben to Leo V, in Sis, the capital, and in Tarsus. These coins, inscribed with Armenian characters and decorated with Christian symbols, most often represented the king and, on the reverse side, a lion together with the name of the monetary workshop or a religious invocation.