1000 Francs Mercator

The Mercator 1000-franc note had one of the longest print runs in twentieth-century Belgian currency, remaining in issue across fourteen years and five distinct signature combinations — an unusual span that reflects the NBB's conservative approach to high-denomination replacement. The note was demonetized in 1990, giving it a full circulation life of nearly three decades in total.

Bessi designed several notes for Belgium during this period, with engraving split between Minguet on the obverse and the Decuyper-Leclercqz pairing on the reverse — a division of labor common to Banque Nationale commissions of the era but rarely documented this precisely in contemporary records.