Here is a coin with a number of interesting elements:

Most sources I have found, describe the obverse as “Dates within crescent below design”. Initially, my comment here was that I think it’s great to have a coin with just a “design” on it, something pretty to look at. Ahmed on social media got me on the right track though! The “design” which many descriptions of this coin leave as just that one word, is actually Arabic Calligraphy. A beautiful form of artwork, shaping each letter into part of a larger design. If you look closely at the lower part of the design (inside the crescent), it is not symmetrical as you might expect from a generic design element placed in the center of the coin. Google Images has many beautiful examples of this art form. Arabic Calligraphy has been inscribed by the UN, on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. So after all that, what is the calligraphic artwork? The ruler’s name: محمد الأمين باي Mohamed El Amin bey. Thank you Ahmed!

The rest of the text on the coin is also in Arabic, reading “Kingdom of Tunisia” above and “100 Francs” below. The text in the crescent is “١٣٧٠ – ١٩٥٠”. These are numbers and they are the year in Arabic. Here are the Arabic numbers: ١ one, ٢ two, ٣ three, ٤ four, ٥ five, ٦ six, ٧ seven, ٨ eight, ٩ nine, ١٠ ten. The date reads “1950 – 1370” – The date, 1370 is the Hijri, or Islamic date, which we covered when talking about the Morocco 1 Falus coin.

The reverse has the information in English / French: 1950, 100 Francs, Tunisie (French for Tunisia). The two marks under the word “Francs” are the mintmarks for the Paris mint, and Lucien Bazor, General coin engraver at the mint from 1931 – 1958. I quite like the offset circles containing the information on this piece. This also creates a crescent, one of the symbols on the Tunisian flag:

Tunisia is a country in Northern Africa. Part of the Ottoman empire, then a French protectorate, the country has influences from both of these. This coin has several French elements, such as the mintmarks, and the coin orientation (the top of one side is the bottom of the other). The denomination of “Francs” is, of course, particularly French. The currency was divided into 100 Centimes = 1 Franc, although the last 10 and 20 Centimes coins were issued in 1945.

The coin was issued under Muhammad VIII al-Amin, the last Bey of Tunis, and also the only King of Tunisia. Following the abolition of the monarchy in 1957, Tunisia has been a republic. In 1958, the currency was changed to the “Dinar”, which is subdivided into 1,000 Milim or Millième.