AFGHANISTAN. Kingdom. Mohammad Zahir Shah, 1933–1973. Bronze 5 Pul. Berlin, SH1316 (1937). UNC. Toned. KM-938.

This bronze 5 Pul was struck at the Berlin Mint in SH1316 (1937 AD), during the early years of Mohammad Zahir Shah's reign as King of Afghanistan. Zahir Shah ascended to the throne in November 1933 at the age of 19 following the assassination of his father Mohammad Nadir Shah, and the SH1316 date places this coin in the fourth year of his rule — a period of careful national consolidation in which the young king's uncles largely managed the affairs of state while Zahir Shah established his footing.

The decision to strike Afghan coinage at the Berlin Mint in 1937 reflects the continued reliance on established European minting facilities that had characterized Afghan coinage production for decades. Afghanistan had no domestic infrastructure capable of producing modern machine-struck coinage at scale, and contracting to the Berlin Mint allowed for a consistent, well-executed product. The SH1316 series struck in Berlin encompasses several denominations and represents some of the most cleanly produced base metal coinage of the Zahir Shah era.

Catalogued as KM-938, this type was struck in bronze to a standard weight of 3 grams at 17mm diameter — the smallest denomination in the SH1316 Berlin series. Graded Uncirculated, this example retains its original mint surfaces and bronze luster. As a small-denomination coin struck for active everyday use, surviving UNC examples are genuinely scarce — the 5 Pul circulated actively and was rarely preserved, making clean uncirculated survivors a real find for the specialist collector.

This example displays attractive original toning across the surfaces, a natural patina that has developed over more than eight decades and adds visual depth and character to the coin's appearance.