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20 Centimes - Muhammad VIII Essai
| Issuer | Monnaie de Paris |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
| Type | Coin pattern |
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| Obverse description | The obverse displays an elaborate Arabic legend covering the entire field, arranged in flowing calligraphic script around a central round hole. The inscription names Muhammad Al-Amin Muddat Bey of Tunisia and states the denomination of 20 centimes, with the Hijri year 1364 positioned in the lower segment. The design is framed by a beaded inner border and a rope-pattern outer border, characteristic of the holed coinage series issued under the French Protectorate. The bold, deeply struck Arabic lettering fills the available space in a decorative, symmetrical arrangement typical of the Monnaie de Paris engraving style of the period. |
|---|---|
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| Mintage | 1364 (1945) - ١٣٦٤ - 1,100 |
| Additional information |
Tunisia's 1945 coinage program sat in an odd administrative limbo — the Protectorate government was nominally restored under the Bey after Liberation, but France's monetary authority was simultaneously rebuilding its own minting capacity after the Occupation had gutted it. These essais were struck at Paris as pattern trials, never approved for circulation, which is precisely why they survive predominantly in mint state. Muhammad VIII al-Amin had only just been installed as Bey in mid-1943, making this one of the earliest trial strikings to bear his name.