50 Paisa - Tribhuvana Bir Bikram

Tribhuvan's reign was politically constrained for most of this period — the Shah kings of Nepal functioned largely as figureheads under the Rana oligarchy, which had controlled the government since Jung Bahadur Rana's coup of 1846. Coins bearing Tribhuvan's name circulated under a regime he had no real power over. The irony sharpened in 1950, when he famously sought asylum in the Indian embassy in Kathmandu and helped engineer the end of Rana rule entirely.

The .800 silver fineness was a deliberate step down from earlier Nepalese issues, reflecting regional monetary pressures common to the subcontinent in the 1930s.