10 Dinars 2003 Coup d'état 16th Anniversary, Arabic legend

Tunisia's November 7, 1987 coup — in which Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali deposed the aging and increasingly erratic Habib Bourguiba on medical grounds — was thereafter institutionalized as a national holiday called "Change Day." Commemorative coins marking successive anniversaries became a reliable fixture of the Banque Centrale's output through the 1990s and into the 2000s, effectively conscripting the mint into the personality cult that Ben Ali was methodically constructing around the event.

The Arabic-legend variant of this issue exists alongside a French-legend counterpart, the two produced for distinct domestic and diplomatic distribution channels.