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4 Rial - Abdulhamid II and Muhammad III without 'Al-Ghazi', Countermarked
| Issuer | Tunisia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1878 |
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| Reference(s) | KM#187 |
| Obverse description | Central field bears the Arabic legend of the Ottoman Sultan's name and title enclosed within a finely detailed olive or laurel wreath. The inscription reads 'Sultan Abdulhamid Khan' in elegant Arabic calligraphy arranged in three lines. A small countermark in the form of a star appears within the field. The coin has a beaded border encircling the entire design. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central field displays a multi-line Arabic inscription naming the Bey Muhammad al-Sadiq, the mint city of Tunis, the denomination '4', and the Islamic date 1294 AH, all enclosed within a finely engraved olive or laurel wreath. The legends are arranged in four lines in a clear Arabic script. A beaded border frames the entire reverse design. The date 1294 AH corresponds to 1877–1878 CE. |
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| Additional information |
Tunisia's currency in the 1870s occupied an awkward dual sovereignty — nominally Ottoman, practically French, and financially collapsing. The Bey's government had defaulted on its European loans in 1869, triggering an international financial commission that effectively stripped Tunis of fiscal independence years before the formal French protectorate of 1881. Coins from this transitional period frequently circulated alongside countermarked Spanish, French, and earlier Ottoman pieces, making host-coin identification a legitimate challenge.
The absence of the honorific 'Al-Ghazi' distinguishes this type from the more common parallel issue — a small but catalogically significant distinction that KM#187 separates explicitly.