From Thief to King - His Coins. Habibullah Ghazi (Habibullah Kalakani) was born in the 1890’s in Afghanistan. After being unsuccessful at school, various odd jobs and dishonorably discharged from the Afghan Army, he found a successful and lucrative career robbing caravans traveling along the Silk Road between China and the Middle East. He soon became a powerful local warlord. In 1928 King Amanullah’s attempts to modernize the country, provoked revolts by conservatives throughout the country. Habibullah initially used his troops to support the King, then turned and marched on Kabul, the capital. Amanullah fled the country and Habibullah became king of Afghanistan on January 17, 1929. He promptly reversed most of Amanullah’s reforms. Meanwhile, General Mohammad Nadir Khan, (Nadir Shah) who had been exiled by Amanullah, returned from Europe, and with a little help from the British, quickly retook the country. By October, Nadir Khan surrounded Kabul and Habibullah fled back to his village. Nadir Khan executed Habibullah and Nadir made himself king. Here's an important excerpt from a post by Conder101: "Habibullah Ghazi issued coins during his nine month reign, three of them, 5, 10 and 20 Paisa coins [are] made of brass. They're listed as KM 969, 970.1, 970.2, and 972." Thought you'd like to know ... Clinker
Interesting story, one problem though Habibullah Ghazi never issued a half rupee and the coin shown is a half rupee KM 896 issued by Mohammad Nadir Khan after he became king. (Not your error, Joel is showin the wrong coin.) And your link to Joel's site doesn't work. Try http://www.joelscoins.com/ Habibullah Ghazi did issue coins during his nine month reign, three of them, 5, 10 and 20 Paisa coins made of brass. They are listed as KM 969, 970.1, 970.2, and 972.
Of course he wouldn't be the last thief to become King, and he was far from the first. Curiously also the last king of Afghanistan only died very recently in the last couple of years and he was in his 90's and had ruled from the 1930's on up until ca. 1973 or so when he was toppled from power and the whole deterioration of Afghanistan began, which continues to the present day unfortunately.
