1 Rupee - Sher Ali Kabul Mint

Sher Ali Khan's reign was defined almost entirely by the Great Game — the prolonged Anglo-Russian competition for influence over Central Asia that made Afghanistan a buffer state neither power could afford to let the other control. His rupees from the Kabul mint date to the years immediately preceding the Second Anglo-Afghan War, which erupted in 1878 after Sher Ali accepted a Russian diplomatic mission while refusing entry to a British one. He died in Mazar-i-Sharif in February 1879, in flight, having abdicated in favor of his son Yaqub Khan.

Coins from the final year of this issue, 1878, were struck as British forces were already massing on the frontier.