10 Dinars 2001 Coup d'état 14th Anniversary, French legend

This coin marks the 14th anniversary of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's seizure of power on November 7, 1987, when he removed the aging and increasingly erratic Habib Bourguiba by declaring him medically unfit to govern — a constitutionally dubious maneuver that nonetheless proceeded without armed resistance. Ben Ali's government institutionalized November 7th as a national celebration, commissioning commemorative coinage annually in both Arabic and French legend variants to reach different segments of the domestic and collector markets. The French-legend version reflects Tunisia's enduring administrative bilingualism, a direct inheritance from the Protectorate period that outlasted independence by decades.