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1/2 Rupee / Deb Period III
| Issuer | Kingdom of Bhutan |
|---|---|
| Year | 1835-1910 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Irregular hammered flan bearing a central rectangular cartouche containing Tibetan script characters rendered in bold, angular strokes. The design is arranged within a rectilinear framework of raised lines forming a geometric border. The overall appearance is characteristic of the crude hammered coinage of Bhutan's Deb period, with the die impression offset slightly on the irregular flan. The field surrounding the central cartouche shows minimal detail, and the flan edges are irregular and ragged as typical of this issue. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Irregular hammered flan displaying a central rectangular panel divided by a raised horizontal bar into two registers. The upper register contains a prominent raised teardrop or droplet-shaped device flanked by small raised pellets, while the left side features a small square depression. The lower register and outer border are framed by additional raised linear elements. The design is characteristic of Bhutanese Deb-period coinage, with the bold geometric and symbolic motifs rendered in a primitive but distinctive style on the roughly circular, ragged-edged flan. |
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| Additional information |
Bhutanese coinage of this period was produced entirely by hand, using locally cast dies with no standardized striking apparatus. The result is that no two examples are quite alike in shape, centering, or die alignment — a characteristic that confounds graders accustomed to machine-struck coinage. The "Deb" in the designation refers to the Druk Desi, the secular ruler of Bhutan, whose authority over coinage ran parallel to that of the theocratic Je Khenpo throughout this era.
The seventy-five year span assigned to this type reflects the near-impossibility of dating individual strikes with precision.