1/2 Rupee / Deb Period I

Bhutan's early coinage was struck not by a government mint but by local craftsmen working under loose royal sanction, which explains the dramatic variation in flan preparation and strike quality seen across this type. The "Deb" in the attribution refers to the Druk Desi, Bhutan's secular ruler, who held administrative authority parallel to the theocratic Je Khenpo throughout this period — a dual-power structure that complicated any standardization of weights or monetary policy.

KM#3 spans a half-century of issue precisely because no reliable die records survive to narrow the dating further.