20 Paisa - Birendra Bir Bikram International Year of the Child

The International Year of the Child was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979, thirty years after the original Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Nepal was among a number of smaller nations that issued commemorative coinage specifically for the occasion — a pattern that produced dozens of short-run issues globally, most of which saw minimal circulation and ended up in collector sets rather than commerce.

Birendra had ascended the throne in 1972 following the death of Mahendra, ruling under the Panchayat system that suppressed political parties until popular pressure forced its abolition in 1990.