Last updated: September 2026

What were Nepal's first banknotes?

Nepal's first paper money was issued from September 1945 by the Sadar Mulukikhana, the government Central Treasury, in three denominations: 5, 10 and 100 rupees. All three were printed by the India Security Press at Nashik, all three carried a portrait of King Tribhuwan, and all three were signed by the Khajanchee, the head of the treasury, because Nepal had no central bank yet.

The Nepal Rastra Bank's own catalogue of the country's notes and coins records each one in detail. The 5 rupee note is violet brown, 73 by 126 mm, with a tiger in the jungle on the back and a print run of roughly 660,000. The 10 rupee note pairs King Tribhuwan with the Guheshwari temple and puts the national crest on the back. The 100 rupee note shows the king with the Pashupati temple and an Asian rhinoceros on the reverse, and only about 45,000 were printed (Nepal Rastra Bank, Notes and Coins of Nepal, Golden Jubilee Year 2005/06).

A one rupee note followed later, issued between 1953 and 1960, and it is the odd one out. Instead of a royal portrait it shows a coin and a temple on the front and a kalash, a holy vase, with the reverse of a one rupee coin on the back. Its watermark is a crown rather than a king. The catalogue lists three Khajanchees in the treasury era: Janak Raj Pandit, Bharat Raj Pandit and Narendra Raj Pandit, whose tenure ended on 25 April 1956, the day before the central bank opened.

Why do old Nepalese notes say Mo Ru?

Because that was the word Nepal printed for rupees before the wording was changed. The Nepal Rastra Bank catalogue records, note by note, that the word Mo Ru for rupees was changed into Rupaiyan, and dates the change to the printings issued from 1962 onwards. The older Mo Ru wording is what collectors are pointing at when they call these the mohru notes.

It is a useful variety to know, because the change did not happen on every denomination at once. The catalogue flags it separately on the 5 rupee note of 1962, on two different 10 rupee printings, on the 100 rupee notes of 1965 and 1966, and again on the one rupee note issued from 1968. That staggering is why two notes that look identical can sit in very different places in a catalogue.

Nepal's early notes carry other inscription changes of the same kind. The same catalogue records that the treasury issues of 1948 spelled the word for government SARKAR and that the next printing corrected it to SARAKAR, and that the wording naming the issuing government was changed on notes from 1962. Small text changes like these are the backbone of Nepalese collecting, much as they are in our India banknotes hub.

When did Nepal Rastra Bank start issuing notes?

Nepal Rastra Bank was established in 1956 under the Nepal Rastra Bank Act, 1955, and issued its first notes on 19 February 1960. The bank had set up a Note Department in September 1956 to prepare for the handover, and the treasury kept issuing notes until February 1960, when the responsibility passed to the central bank.

The bank describes its own founding plainly. It was established as the central bank of the country on 26 April 1956, at a time when both Nepalese and Indian currency circulated side by side, and the preamble to the 1955 Act asked it to ensure proper management for the issuance of Nepalese currency notes (Nepal Rastra Bank). The Note Department was renamed the Currency Management Department in November 2002, and the old Mint Department, set up in 1932, was folded into it as the Mint Division in July 2005.

The first four central bank notes were printed by De La Rue in the United Kingdom and all carry the signature of Governor Himalaya Shumsher JBR. They are a one rupee with the coin and temple design inherited from the treasury, a five rupee and a ten rupee, and a one hundred rupee. From the five rupee note onwards the king's portrait sits on the left with the watermark window on the right, a layout Nepal has kept ever since. Our history of De La Rue covers the printer, and who prints the world's money explains why small central banks buy their notes abroad.

Which kings appear on Nepalese banknotes?

Four. King Tribhuwan is on the treasury notes from 1945, King Mahendra on the first Nepal Rastra Bank issues from 1960, King Birendra on the notes issued from 1974, and King Gyanendra on the notes issued from about 2002. Each change of portrait resets the catalogue, which is why Nepalese collecting is usually organised by reign.

The Mahendra notes are where the denomination range grew. A 1,000 rupee note showing the king with the Swayambhu stupa and the Harati temple, backed by a Himalayan landscape with Annapurna behind it, was issued on 28 December 1969 in a run of about 200,000. A 500 rupee note showing the king with Ama Dablam and the Thyangboche monastery, backed by a pair of tigers, followed on 7 June 1971 in a run of only about 100,000 notes.

The Birendra era is the one most collectors meet first, because it lasted from 1974 to the end of the 1990s and covers the widest set of denominations, including 2, 20, 25, 50 and 250 rupee notes. Commemorative 25 and 250 rupee notes were printed by Giesecke and Devrient in Germany and issued in April 1997. For the wider habit of putting rulers on money, see portraits on banknotes.

Which animals and mountains are on Nepalese rupee notes?

Nepalese notes are one of the best wildlife sets in world paper money. The Asian rhinoceros has been on the back of the 100 rupee note almost continuously since 1945, a pair of yaks on the five, musk deer on the one, swamp deer on the twenty, tigers on the five hundred and an Asian elephant on the thousand.

The catalogue makes the pattern easy to follow across reigns. The Birendra one rupee note shows Ama Dablam with a couple of Himalayan musk deer, the five rupee a pair of yaks with Ama Dablam behind them, the twenty a swamp deer stag against mountains, the one hundred an Asian rhinoceros, and the one thousand an Asian male elephant. The mountains do the same work on the fronts, with the 100 rupee notes of the Mahendra and Birendra eras showing Nuptse, Everest and Lhotse together with the Nyatapola temple.

There is one famous exception. A 100 rupee note issued from February 1971, showing King Mahendra with Nuptse, Everest and Lhotse, put the fifty window palace of Bhaktapur on the reverse instead of the usual animal. The Nepal Rastra Bank catalogue notes it as the only 100 rupee note of Nepal with no rhinoceros on the back, and only about 3 million were printed. More species from more countries are in our animals on banknotes guide.

Did Nepal issue a polymer banknote?

Yes. Nepal's first polymer note was a commemorative 10 rupee issued from 30 September 2002 and printed by Note Printing Australia. Around 50 million were made, which is why it is one of the easiest early polymer notes in Asia to find today in uncirculated condition.

The Nepal Rastra Bank catalogue describes it precisely. It is golden brown, 70 by 133 mm, with King Gyanendra and an image of Lord Changunarayan on the front, and a line of Devanagari text around the see-through window reading that it was issued on the auspicious occasion of the king's accession to the throne in 2058 of the Nepalese calendar. The security devices include a crown watermark and a security thread image, and the serial numbers are printed in two different colours.

Nepal did not follow it with a general move to plastic. The notes in circulation today are paper, with the rhododendron, Nepal's national flower, as the watermark. Our comparison of polymer versus paper banknotes explains why some issuers switch and others do not.

When did Mount Everest replace the king?

Mount Everest took the front of Nepal's banknotes from 2008. A 1,000 rupee note with Everest and a rhododendron on the front, and a rhododendron and an elephant on the back, was issued on 7 April 2008, and Nepal Rastra Bank withdrew all notes bearing the portrait of former king Gyanendra on 15 March 2011.

The changeover had a curious wrinkle. The 2008 thousand rupee note left the king's name and portrait out of the design but kept his image as the watermark, because the paper had been ordered from an Indonesian manufacturer before April 2006. The first print run was about 30 million notes, and the note carried the signature of Acting Governor Krishna Bahadur Manandhar (Banknote News). Notes carrying the old portrait stayed exchangeable at bank branches for several weeks after the March 2011 withdrawal (Banknote News).

Everest itself was not new to the money. The five rupee note of 19 February 1960 already carried Mount Everest on its reverse, so the mountain spent almost half a century on the back of Nepal's smallest notes before it moved to the front of the largest ones. The modern 500 rupee design, introduced on 26 September 2013 with the date 2012, puts Everest, the god Indra, Ama Dablam and the Thyangboche monastery on the front and two tigers drinking melted snow on the back (Banknote News).

Nepalese banknote series at a glance

The table groups Nepalese paper money the way the Nepal Rastra Bank catalogue does, by issuing authority and by the portrait on the front. Dates are the issue dates recorded by the bank.

Series data from the Nepal Rastra Bank catalogue Notes and Coins of Nepal, which lists colour, size, prefix, print run and security features for every note from 1945 to 2006, and from the bank's own department and circulation pages for the years since.

What is Nepal Rastra Bank issuing now?

The bank is midway through refreshing every denomination. Its Currency Management Department published circulation notices for a new 5 rupee note in April 2025, a new 10 rupee note in June 2025, a 100 rupee note of the 2024 series in November 2025, a 500 rupee note in June 2026 and a 50 rupee note of the 2025 series in September 2026.

The department also publishes its printing contracts, which is unusual and useful. In 2025 it invited bids from prequalified security printers for 420 million pieces of 50 rupee notes and 430 million pieces of 1,000 rupee notes, and announced the signing of both contracts in November 2025 (Nepal Rastra Bank, Currency Management Department). Banknote News confirmed the new 500 rupee note, with the signature of Governor Poudel and the date 2025, as introduced on 17 June 2026 (Banknote News).

The bank publishes the security features of the current notes itself. The 1,000 rupee note has a rhododendron watermark, a see-through register showing 1000, a security thread reading NRB and 1000, raised intaglio ink and a Braille feature for blind and partially sighted users. The 500 rupee note adds an edge stone and corner stone watermark and a security thread carrying a tiger image, and its thread shifts from red to green as the note is tilted (Nepal Rastra Bank, Know Your Bank Notes). Our guide to banknote security features explains what each device does.

How do you collect Nepalese banknotes?

Pick one reign, learn its signature numbers, then decide how much condition matters to you. Nepal is a good beginner country because the central bank published a full illustrated catalogue of its own notes, with colours, sizes, prefixes and print runs, so you can check almost anything against the issuer rather than a dealer's description.

Three routes work well. The Birendra era gives you the widest denomination range and plenty of affordable uncirculated notes. The Mahendra era is the value lane, because the 500 rupee of 1971 and the 1,000 rupee of 1969 were printed in tiny numbers next to everything that followed. The treasury era from 1945 to 1960 is the historical lane, and there the honest advice is to buy one well preserved note rather than several tired ones.

Learn the prefix system early. Nepalese notes carry Devanagari prefix letters and numbers, and the catalogue lists replacement prefixes separately for many issues, which is exactly the pattern described in our page on star notes and replacement notes. Grades run from Uncirculated down through AU, XF, VF, F, VG and G, and the certified market uses a 1 to 70 scale: see the banknote grading guide, graded versus raw banknotes, Pick numbers explained and what determines banknote value. Paper from a humid climate rewards care, so read how to store banknotes before you buy in quantity.

Buy from an established dealer that authenticates every note, documents where it came from and stands behind it in writing. Browse the banknotes by country directory to see what has been sourced, and read how to buy world banknotes safely and how to collect world banknotes first. The banknote glossary defines the terms, and the neighbouring Indian rupee and China hubs put Nepal's paper money in its regional context.

Planet Banknote is a family-owned dealership in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 2021. Every note is sourced direct from mints, central banks, and authorized distributors, inspected through our Planet Banknote Verified process, and ships with a free Certificate of Authenticity. US orders ship free via USPS Priority, and every order includes a free bonus gift.