National Arms of Tunesia

Heraldry of the World Civic heraldry of Tunisia

THE NATIONAL ARMS OF TUNISIA

Origin/meaning

The lion significates "Order" (in arabic, it's written and pronunciated "Nidham"), the ship is the meaning of "Freedom" ("Hurriya") and the balance is the "Justice" (Adala).

The colours are not officially defined. Since 1989 the image above is generally used, with the whole shield golden. The image below, is the coloured version, which currently is no longer or rarely used. The arms can also be seen with the lower half reversed, as seen on th eimage below.

The coloured version of the arms

The arms on a First Day Cover (1962), lower half reversed

The arms were adopted just after the independence in 1956. Prior to that the arms of the Protectorate of Tunis were rather different:

The arms on a trade card from around 1905

The arms on a postcard from around 1910

The arms on a postcard by Barré Dayez (1950s)

Literature : -