1 Rupee - Sher Ali Kabul Mint

Sher Ali Khan's second reign (1868–1879) saw Afghanistan caught between Russian expansion from the north and British pressure from the south — the so-called "Great Game" at its most acute. The Kabul mint produced these rupees under conditions of chronic political instability; Sher Ali spent much of this decade negotiating and renegotiating his position with both imperial powers before ultimately granting Russia a mission to Kabul in 1878, the act that triggered the Second Anglo-Afghan War. He died in Mazar-i-Sharif in February 1879, in flight, before the war concluded.