10 Afghanis Independence

Struck in the final year of Soviet military withdrawal from Afghanistan, this issue commemorates the 70th anniversary of Afghan independence — the 1919 victory over Britain in the Third Anglo-Afghan War that secured full control over foreign affairs from the British Indian government. The timing was entirely deliberate: the Najibullah regime, desperate for nationalist legitimacy as Soviet backing evaporated, leaned heavily on independence iconography throughout the late 1980s.

Da Afghanistan Bank continued issuing brass coinage through this period despite the country's accelerating economic collapse and civil conflict that would ultimately unseat Najibullah by 1992.