Belgium's postwar monetary reconstruction required a credible high-denomination silver coin, and this 100 Franc piece was the result — issued under the regency of Prince Charles, who governed after Leopold III's wartime conduct made an immediate royal restoration politically impossible. Leopold had remained in Belgium during the German occupation, a decision that split the country along linguistic and ideological lines so sharply that when he finally returned in July 1950, riots in Liège left four dead. He abdicated within weeks in favor of Baudouin.
The French-text variant was struck for Wallonia's predominantly francophone population, a linguistic distinction Belgium had applied to its coinage since 1886.
Belgium's postwar monetary reconstruction required a credible high-denomination silver coin, and this 100 Franc piece was the result — issued under the regency of Prince Charles, who governed after Leopold III's wartime conduct made an immediate royal restoration politically impossible. Leopold had remained in Belgium during the German occupation, a decision that split the country along linguistic and ideological lines so sharply that when he finally returned in July 1950, riots in Liège left four dead. He abdicated within weeks in favor of Baudouin.
The French-text variant was struck for Wallonia's predominantly francophone population, a linguistic distinction Belgium had applied to its coinage since 1886.