50 Paisa - Tribhuvana Bir Bikram

Nepal's transition to billon coinage in this period reflects the postwar reorganization of the country's monetary system under Tribhuvan, who spent much of the late 1940s in political conflict with the Rana oligarchy that had effectively controlled the throne for a century. His 1950 flight to the Indian embassy in Kathmandu — and then to India itself — briefly interrupted normal government functions entirely. That coins bearing his name were struck through 1953 speaks to how quickly the political situation resolved once the Ranas fell from power and Tribhuvan was restored with real authority.