5 Rupees - Birendra Bir Bikram Social Services

This coin was issued to promote Nepal's social services sector during the Panchayat era — the partyless political system imposed by King Mahendra in 1960 and maintained by his son Birendra until popular protests forced its abolition in 1990. The timing is pointed: by the late 1980s, the Panchayat government was under serious pressure from pro-democracy movements, and commemorative coinage emphasizing welfare and public good carried an unmistakable political subtext.

Birendra's reign ended with his assassination in the royal massacre of June 2001, which killed nine members of the royal family in a single night.