1 Franc - Albert I Aluminium bronze pattern, French text

In 1930, the Belgian colonial administration was testing materials for a new franc coinage intended for Congo circulation. This aluminium bronze piece is an essai — a pattern struck for evaluation rather than distribution — produced as the authorities weighed durability and cost against the cupro-nickel already in use. Such patterns were typically struck in very small numbers at the Brussels mint for official review, and most survivors entered European collections directly from administrative sources rather than through any circulation channel.

The French-text variant exists alongside a Flemish-text counterpart, reflecting Belgium's own linguistic politics being imposed wholesale onto colonial coinage.