AFGHANISTAN. Kingdom. Mohammad Zahir Shah, 1933–1973. Nickel Clad Steel 1 Afghani. Hamburg, SH1340 (1961). KM-953. Schön-92.

This nickel clad steel 1 Afghani was struck at the Hamburg Mint in Germany in SH1340 (1961 AD), during the reign of Mohammad Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan. It is part of the 1961 Hamburg-struck series that encompassed the 1, 2, and 5 Afghani denominations — one of the most significant foreign-minted circulation issues of the Kingdom era, produced as Afghanistan continued to rely on established European mints for its modern machine-struck coinage. The Hamburg Mint, known as the Hamburgische Münze and identified by the mint mark "J," was one of Germany's premier minting facilities. The decision to contract this series to Hamburg reflected both the quality standards Zahir Shah's government sought for its circulation coinage and the practical reality that Afghanistan had no domestic infrastructure capable of producing these coins at the required scale and consistency. The 1961 Hamburg series marked a significant step in the standardization and modernization of Afghan coinage in the mid-20th century. Catalogued as KM-953 and Schön-92, this type was struck in nickel clad steel to a standard weight of 4 grams at 23mm diameter — the smallest denomination in the 1961 Hamburg series. The 1 Afghani represented a meaningful unit of everyday Afghan commerce in the early 1960s, circulating actively and surviving in collectible condition in proportionally smaller numbers than its face value might suggest. It is an attractive and well-struck example of a clean, modern design from one of the more carefully executed issues in the Kingdom of Afghanistan coinage program.