10 Shillings 10th Anniversary of Republic

Somalia declared itself a republic in 1960 following the merger of the former British and Italian Somaliland territories. The 1979 commemorative marks a decade under the socialist government of Siad Barre, who had seized power in a coup nine years earlier and renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic. These silver issues were produced primarily for the collector market and saw no meaningful domestic circulation — the economy had been running on aluminum and steel coinage for everyday transactions throughout Barre's rule.