50 Francs - Muhammad VIII Essai

Muhammad VIII al-Amin was installed as Bey of Tunis by the French in 1943 after they deposed Muhammad VII for collaborating with the Axis occupation. This essai — a trial strike produced by the Monnaie de Paris for approval rather than circulation — was never put into general production, making survivors almost exclusively collector pieces that bypassed ordinary commerce entirely. The Bey himself would be deposed in 1957, one year after Tunisian independence, when Bourguiba abolished the beyship and declared a republic.