1500 Rupees - Gyanendra Bir Bikram Lord Buddha

Nepal issued this coin in 2001 to mark the 2545th anniversary of the birth of Siddhartha Gautama, born in Lumbini — a site within Nepal's Terai region that had been formally confirmed as the Buddha's birthplace by an Ashokan pillar inscription discovered there in 1896. The denomination itself is unusual; 1500 rupees was not a circulating value but a deliberate commemorative figure chosen to reflect the occasion rather than any practical monetary unit.

Gyanendra had just ascended the throne following the catastrophic royal massacre of June 2001, in which Crown Prince Dipendra killed nine members of the royal family before falling into a coma. Coins bearing his name were struck against that still-raw political backdrop.