Thirty-three years is not a round number, yet in 1989 Sudan marked it with a commemorative 50 ghirsh inscribed «العيد الثالث و الثلاثين للاستقلال» (33rd anniversary of independence). The coin is octagonal, the shape the 50 ghirsh had taken in 1987, which the anniversary issue kept.

The obverse is built on text: the anniversary, the dates 1956 and 1989, the Hijri year 1409 and a slogan with the words «الإستقلال» (independence), «وحدة» (unity) and «إنتاج» (production). The reverse carries the state name «جمهورية السودان» (Republic of the Sudan) and the value. With almost no imagery, the Arabic calligraphy filling the field becomes the design.

The coin circulated alongside the ordinary 50 ghirsh. It came in the final years of the first Sudanese pound: on 8 June 1992 the dinar replaced it at 10 pounds to the dinar, and coins of that system ceased to be legal tender.

AU-UNC grade: no wear or barely any, with the edges of the octagon and the fine strokes of the lettering intact. The coin suits a collection of polygonal coins of the world and the run of Sudanese issues marking independence.

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