20 Rial - Abdulmecid I and Muhammad II

This dual-tughra issue reflects the constitutional fiction maintained by the Beylik of Tunis well into the nineteenth century: the Husainid beys governed with near-complete autonomy while still acknowledging Ottoman suzerainty through the inclusion of the reigning sultan's name on coinage. By 1856, that arrangement was increasingly strained. Tunisia had promulgated the Fundamental Pact in 1857 and its constitution in 1861 — the first written constitution in the Arab world — driven partly by pressure from France and Britain rather than any Ottoman initiative.

Muhammad Bey's reformist posture made Tunis an anomaly in the Ottoman sphere. The gold coinage of this period circulated within a financial system already being penetrated by European creditors.