4 Kharub - Abdulaziz and Muhammad III

This issue falls within the brief co-regency period during which the Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz and the Tunisian bey Muhammad III al-Sadiq appeared jointly on the coinage — a political formality required after the 1864 Tunisian revolt, which had forced the bey to formally reaffirm Ottoman suzerainty in exchange for military support to suppress the uprising. The arrangement was largely symbolic; Tunis had operated as a de facto autonomous state for generations, but the fiscal crisis triggered by the revolt, and the foreign debt it accelerated, made demonstrating Constantinople's nominal authority diplomatically necessary.

KM#158 is frequently found with weak peripheral detail on the reverse, a known consequence of inadequate die pressure at the Tunis mint during this period.