Jaya Prakash Malla's second reign was violently interrupted — he was driven from Kathmandu by Prithvi Narayan Shah's Gorkha forces in 1768, ending both his rule and the Malla dynasty's centuries-long hold on the valley. This dam, the smallest denomination in circulation, would have passed through bazaars supplying a city increasingly encircled by Gorkha expansion. At roughly a twentieth of a rupee, dams were struck in such quantities and handled so roughly that surviving examples in any discernible condition are genuinely scarce.
Jaya Prakash Malla's second reign was violently interrupted — he was driven from Kathmandu by Prithvi Narayan Shah's Gorkha forces in 1768, ending both his rule and the Malla dynasty's centuries-long hold on the valley. This dam, the smallest denomination in circulation, would have passed through bazaars supplying a city increasingly encircled by Gorkha expansion. At roughly a twentieth of a rupee, dams were struck in such quantities and handled so roughly that surviving examples in any discernible condition are genuinely scarce.