Falus Lion and Counterstamp Raij

Herat's copper falus operated outside the controlled hierarchies of the Durrani and later Barakzai administrations in Kabul — the city's semi-autonomous governors struck and counterstamped local coinage on their own authority for much of this period. The raij counterstamp, applied to already-circulating flans, was a practical instrument of revalidation, confirming acceptability in local bazaars without requiring a fresh issue. Herat changed hands violently multiple times across these 144 years, including the Persian siege of 1837–38 and repeated internal power struggles, yet the copper small-change economy carried on with remarkable continuity.