2 Paisa - Mahendra Bir Bikram

Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah ascended the throne in 1955 following the death of his father Tribhuvan, who had only recently wrested power back from the Rana oligarchy in 1951. This brief series falls squarely in the transitional period when Nepal was simultaneously opening to the outside world and consolidating royal authority — Mahendra would later dissolve parliamentary government entirely in 1960, installing the partyless Panchayat system. The two-paisa brass issues of his early reign are modest circulation pieces with no particular rarity, but they represent the first coinage struck under his name before his formal coronation in 1956.