Catalog
500 Rupees
| Issuer | Nepal Rastra Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1974 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | श्री नेपाल राष्ट्र बैंक श्री ५ को सरकारको जमानत प्राप्त सर्वत्र ग्रहणीय बुझाइ दिन आज्ञा छ नेपाल राष्ट्र बैंकका केन्द्रीय रुपैयाँ पाँच शय तुरत पाइने छ ५०० |
| Reverse description | Central vignette of two Bengal tigers striding across a snowy landscape, rendered in fine intaglio engraving. The Nepal Rastra Bank emblem appears in the upper right cartouche, with ornate guilloche border panels at left and right. Denomination is expressed in both Devanagari script at upper centre and in Roman numerals at lower right, with the English legend RUPEES FIVE HUNDRED along the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
Nepal's 500 Rupee denomination was substantial — the highest face value in circulation for most of the 1970s — issued under the authority of Nepal Rastra Bank, which had only been established in 1956 and was still building out its currency framework during this period. Thomas De La Rue handled the printing, as they did for the majority of Nepali notes through these decades, maintaining a near-continuous relationship with Kathmandu that stretched from the earliest Rastra Bank issues onward.
The watermark remains the sole security feature — modest by later standards, but consistent with De La Rue's approach for lower-volume, high-denomination issues where print runs were small enough that sophisticated counterfeiting was considered a limited risk.