Duchy of Avram
| |
| Motto: none Musical Anthem: none | |
| Type of entity: | Micronation |
| Location: | Near Sorell, Tasmania |
| Area claimed: | Non-territorial |
| Membership: | 5,000 + |
| Date of foundation: | ancient |
| Leadership: | Prince John, Grand Duke of Avram |
| Purported organisational structure: | Absolute monarchy |
| Language: | English |
| Purported currency: | Ducal and avrams |
The Duchy of Avram and The Grand Duchy of Avram are Australian micronations. The Grand Duke is sometimes located near the town of Sorell in the south eastern part of Australia's island state, Tasmania.
History
The Grand Duchy became publicly popular in the early 1980s. The name on the Grand Dukes birth certificate is in the name of "The Right Honorable, The Earl of Enoch", The Grand Duke is the Cardinal Archbishop of the Royal See a world wide Church and is cosidered by some a hermetic kabbalah adherent being a former Research Scientist and holder of a number of Doctorates.
The Grand Duke is closely associated with numerous historic Orders of Chivalry and is Grand Master of six Orders of chivalry. He is also associated with 3 Heraldic Authorities "The Royal College of Heraldry", "The Australian Heraldic Archival Register" the only heraldic issuing authority on the Continnt of "Australia" and the internatioally acclaimed International College of Arms of the Noblesse, the worlds premier heraldic issuing authority. Naturally all the Grand dukes titles are backed by Letters Patent and personal grants of armorial bearings.
To some the chief early manifestation of the Duchy was the internationlly acclaimed "The Royal Bank of Avram" which initially started by the issue bank notes and coins and was formed by a Royal Charter and Letters Patent in 1980 and which has issued numerous banknotes and coinage. This gained world wide publicity and massive Court cases. Customers were required to exchange Australian currency for the Avram equivalents in order to transact business. Six massive Civil Court cases were prosecuted by the Government of "The British Dominion of The Commonwealth of Australia" ( as there is no such legal place as "Australia")these cases created world banking history and gained world wide publicity. The cases were recorded in the media at the time, costing the Government of "The Commonwealth of Australia" over 22 million dollars and The Grand Duke $175. All six Civil cases were lost by "the Government Treasury" with "no case to answer" and were further lost by the Government on appeal. It makes fantastic reading for any student of banking or law and would make a fantastic book.
The Royal Bank has issued several sets of coins and banknotes in the name of "The Royal Bank of Avram" since the 1980s (the most recent two isues are dated 2005 and include for the first time 150 and 250 Grand Ducal coins) The Grand ducal coin is colourful and is shown in colour on the front cover of The "Unusual World Coin" catalogue 5th. Edition 2005.
The Grand duchy's success in what was perceived by many as a David and Goliath battle ensured him a degree of notoriety, and this later assisted his election as a conservative member of the Tasmanian State Parliament as the member for Lyons, where he served and held the position of Shadow Minister for Construction. He has also served as Deputy Mayor of the Municipal Council of Sorell. His term of office on the council has at times been controversial, and on one occasion accusations of corruption made by him against a council employee has resulted in legal action being initiated against him by the offended party, who later had his services terminated by the Council. As police looked into the concerns numerous charges against a number of people were laid by the police and one person is currently serving a jail tem in relation to those charges with hopefully more to follow.
The Grand Duchy of Avram has never claimed territory, and the Grand Duke is on record as saying that the Duchy is philosophical not territorial as are most Earldoms and Duchies in the world.