Afghanistan's shift to aluminium coinage in the early 1950s was driven by chronic metal shortages and the country's limited industrial infrastructure — the lightweight alloy allowed Da Afghanistan Bank to stretch its minting budget considerably further than bronze or cupro-nickel would have permitted. These coins were struck at the Kabul mint, which had only been modernized with foreign technical assistance a decade prior.
Zahir Shah's reign was then in its reformist phase, with Prime Minister Shah Mahmud Khan cautiously opening Afghanistan to foreign investment and a free press — a period sometimes called the "Liberal Parliament" era, though it ended abruptly in 1953 with Daoud Khan's coup against his own uncle.
Afghanistan's shift to aluminium coinage in the early 1950s was driven by chronic metal shortages and the country's limited industrial infrastructure — the lightweight alloy allowed Da Afghanistan Bank to stretch its minting budget considerably further than bronze or cupro-nickel would have permitted. These coins were struck at the Kabul mint, which had only been modernized with foreign technical assistance a decade prior.
Zahir Shah's reign was then in its reformist phase, with Prime Minister Shah Mahmud Khan cautiously opening Afghanistan to foreign investment and a free press — a period sometimes called the "Liberal Parliament" era, though it ended abruptly in 1953 with Daoud Khan's coup against his own uncle.