Coins from Nepal

carabonnair

I have been casually collecting Nepal for decades. At the PNNA show I found a nice one paisa in Allen Berman's stock. Last night I spent way too much time fixing up the coronation set. I selected the best ones for the custom-made holder, which should preserve them pretty well. The original holder has a certain rustic charm with the original Yeoman numbers in white pencil, too. I am still looking for a 2 paisa to complete the back-up set. This is a labor of love, the whole set is probably a $15 item!

Post your coins from Nepal if you have any favorites.

WillieBoyd2

Some time ago I read French mountain climber Maurice Herzog's book "Annapurna", about the 1950 French expedition to the Nepal peak Annapurna.

Herzog and Louis Lachenal made it to the summit on June 3, 1950. Both lost all their toes due to frostbite and Herzog lost his fingers, also.

Nepal silver rupee VS 1989 (AD 1932)
Silver, 30 mm, 11.07 gm

The book mentioned that the porters who carried supplies were paid six silver rupees per day.

Silver rupees had to be packed to the base camp for the climb.

From "Annapurna":

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At Butwal, the first village in Nepal, which marks the end of the great plain of the Ganges and the beginning of the mountains, we had to get our money changed, for in these mountainous regions, particularly in the remoter districts, the natives have no faith in paper money and insist upon silver, the standard coinage in most Asiatic countries.

Seated in the shade of a great banyan tree, I presided over the coolies' payday which lasted all day long. The fascinated coolies shoved their noses close to the beams of the scales. Each of them received six rupees and one packet of "Red Star" cigarettes, acknowledged it with hands clasped, Hindu fashion, and then signed his name on G. B. Rana's list.

(In front of what he is told is his name, written by the babu, each porter presses his thumb previously dipped in ink.) As the list lengthened, additional pieces of parchment were stuck on. By the time the operation was finished, it was nearly four yards long!