Catalog
1 Franc
| Issuer | Banque du Congo Belge (Bank of Belgian Congo) |
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| Year | 1944-1949 |
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| Engraver(s) | Armand Bonnetain |
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| Obverse description | The obverse features the denomination '1 FR' prominently displayed in the center of the field, flanked on each side by a five-pointed star. A bilingual legend encircles the design, reading 'BANQUE DU CONGO BELGE' in French along the upper arc and 'BANK VAN BELGISCH CONGO' in Dutch along the lower arc, reflecting the dual official languages of the issuing institution. The overall design is clean and typographic, with no figurative portrait, consistent with the colonial monetary authority's house style for subsidiary coinage. |
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| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DU CONGO BELGE * 1 FR * BANK VAN BELGISCH CONGO (Translation: Bank of Belgian Congo) |
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| Additional information |
The Banque du Congo Belge issued this brass franc during a period when the colony was generating extraordinary wealth for the Allied war effort — Congolese uranium, copper, and industrial diamonds were strategic materials, and the colonial monetary system had to function stably enough to keep that extraction machinery running. Belgium itself was under Nazi occupation from 1940, meaning colonial financial administration operated in a peculiar limbo, with the bank functioning largely independently from Brussels until liberation.
The brass composition reflects wartime and postwar metal economics rather than any colonial-specific policy.