1/2 Rupee - Sher Ali

Sher Ali Khan's second reign (1868–1879) was defined almost entirely by the Great Game, with British India and Tsarist Russia competing for Afghan allegiance through diplomacy, subsidy, and occasional coercion. His coinage was struck at the Kabul mint and reflects the administrative consolidation he pursued after ousting his half-brother Mohammad Afzal. The 1876 Peshawar Conference, where British envoys pressed Sher Ali to accept a permanent mission in Kabul, would ultimately collapse into the Second Anglo-Afghan War — which began the year he died.