The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Kathmandu

The name of Nepal's embatled king has been removed from the two-rupee coin, the state bank said Thursday, in the latest move ahead of polls this year that could see the country become a republic. King Gyanendra's name has been replaced on the coin with an image of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak which is on Nepal's border with China. The other side of the coin, which is worth about three cents, shows a farmer ploughing a field. "This is the first time we have removed the name of the king from coins," Manmohan Kumar Shrestha, the chief currency management official at Nepal's state bank, told AFP. The national bank had begun distribution Thursday of 100 million coins without the king's name, the official said, adding his image would soon be removed from high-denomination bills.