1/2 Dinar Habib Bourguiba

Tunisia's half-dinar series of this period was tied directly to the socialist economic policies of Bourguiba's single-party state, the Destourian Socialist Party, which kept tight control over monetary circulation throughout the 1970s. Bourguiba had himself named president-for-life in 1975, and coins bearing his portrait from this span effectively functioned as political currency — his image was mandatory on all Tunisian coinage by presidential decree.

The Banque Centrale de Tunisie contracted production to French mints during much of this run, a hangover from the colonial monetary relationship with France that persisted well past independence in 1956.