50 Dinars

Algeria's bimetallic coinage program of the early 1990s came during one of the most turbulent decades in the country's post-independence history. The 50 Dinar piece entered circulation just as the military cancelled the 1992 legislative elections — results that had favored the Islamic Salvation Front — triggering a civil conflict that killed an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people over the following decade. Coins from the early striking years circulated through a country under a state of emergency that remained formally in place until 2011.

The extraordinarily long production span — nearly three decades from a single design — reflects the monetary conservatism of the Banque d'Algérie rather than any particular stability.