20 Rupees

P#55 replaced the earlier 20 Rupee design when Nepal Rastra Bank undertook a broader series refresh in the mid-2000s, partly in response to ongoing counterfeiting pressure on lower-denomination notes. The security specification is minimal by contemporary standards — watermark only, no security thread, no color-shifting ink — which reflects the economics of issuing a relatively low-value denomination in a country where sophisticated printing contracts were expensive relative to the note's face value.

Nepal was in the final years of its decade-long Maoist insurgency at the time of issue, a conflict that badly disrupted rural banking infrastructure and accelerated wear on circulating notes.