50 Rupees - Birendra Bir Bikram Red Panda

Issued to mark Nepal's admission to CITES — the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species — this coin was part of a broader WWF-aligned conservation coinage trend that swept through smaller nations during the early 1970s. The red panda, native to Nepal's eastern hill forests, was already under serious pressure from habitat loss and the illegal pet trade when this piece was struck. Nepal was among the first Asian signatories to CITES, ratifying in 1975, making this issue something of a premature celebration — struck the year before the treaty formally bound the country.