500 Rupees

Nepal's 500 Rupee denomination has historically occupied an awkward position in the country's monetary supply — large enough to be hoarded, small enough to circulate freely in urban markets, which means surviving notes from this issue frequently show heavy use. The P#43 series was printed during the late Birendra period, just before the royal massacre of June 2001 destabilized the country's institutional confidence and triggered a broader review of currency security standards.

Watermark-only security reflects the relatively modest anti-counterfeiting investment of Nepalese notes of this vintage — later issues added security threads and color-shifting ink in response to documented forgery activity in the early 2000s.