AFGHANISTAN. Kingdom. Mohammad Zahir Shah, 1933-1973. Nickel clad steel 25 Pul. Kabul, SH1331 (1952). UNC. Offstruck. KM-944.

This nickel clad steel 25 Pul was struck at the Kabul Mint in SH1331 (1952 AD) during the reign of Mohammad Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan and the longest-serving ruler of the country since the founding of the Durrani Empire. Zahir Shah's reign, spanning nearly four decades from 1933 to 1973, was one of the most stable and consequential periods in modern Afghan history, marked by cautious modernization, expanding international relations, and a prolonged era of relative peace often remembered as Afghanistan's golden age.

The obverse carries Pashto and Arabic inscriptions reading "Afghanistan" and "Mohammad Zahir Shah," while the reverse displays the Afghan national emblem featuring a mosque with minarets flanked by flags and wheat branches within a wreath. KM-944 specifies a standard weight of 3 grams at 20mm diameter with a smooth edge.

This example is a significant mint error — a dramatic offstrike affecting both sides of the coin. An offstrike occurs when the planchet is not properly centered between the dies at the moment of striking, resulting in a portion of the design being displaced off the flan. On this coin the misalignment is substantial, with design elements visibly running off the edge on both the obverse and reverse, leaving a corresponding blank area on the opposing side. The coin retains full Uncirculated surfaces, confirming it was set aside without entering circulation — an important detail, as mint errors in UNC condition are significantly scarcer than circulated survivors. This is a genuinely rare Afghan mint error in exceptional preservation.