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20 ECU - Baudouin I 40th Anniversary of Baudouin I reign
| Issuer | National Bank of Belgium |
|---|---|
| Year | 1991 |
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| Shape | Round |
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| Obverse description | Bare-headed effigy of King Baudouin I in left-facing profile, set within a raised circular border forming the gold centre field. A decorative geometric pattern of radiating lines adorns the silver outer ring, surmounted at the top by a royal crown. The dates of his reign, '1951 · 1991', are inscribed along the lower arc of the ring, commemorating the 40th anniversary of his accession to the throne. |
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Belgium's ECU coinage of the late 1980s and early 1990s occupied an odd political space — the European Currency Unit was a basket currency used for accounting and financial settlements among EEC member states, never legal tender in any conventional sense, yet Belgium enthusiastically issued collector pieces denominated in it. This 1991 piece marks forty years since Baudouin's accession following Leopold III's controversial abdication, itself the product of the "Royal Question" that had fractured Belgian politics along linguistic and ideological lines for years.
The bimetallic format was still a relative novelty in European commemorative coinage at the time of issue.