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5 Rial - Abdulmecid I and Muhammad II
| Issuer | Tunisia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1856-1860 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | KM#122 |
| Obverse description | The entire field is occupied by a three-line Arabic legend naming the Ottoman Sultan, reading 'Al-Sultan Al-Ghazi Abdulmecid Khan', rendered in bold calligraphic script. The inscription is contained within the coin's borders without a formal wreath frame, with the beaded inner border of the coin's rim encircling the legend. The lettering fills the flan in a stacked arrangement characteristic of Ottoman-era Tunisian gold coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Arabic |
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| Additional information |
Tunisia's gold coinage of this period occupied a peculiar dual-sovereignty position: struck under the Husainid beys as autonomous rulers while nominally acknowledging Ottoman suzerainty, which explains the paired imperial acknowledgment in the coin's title. The 1856–1860 window corresponds to Muhammad Bey's tenure immediately following his 1857 proclamation of the Fundamental Pact — the first constitutional guarantee of civil rights in the Arab world, predating the Ottoman reform decrees it partly inspired.
At under a gram of gold, these were the smallest denomination in Tunisia's reformed metric-adjacent coinage system introduced mid-century. Attrition rates were severe.