Baudouin I acceded to the Belgian throne on July 11, 1951, following Leopold III's controversial abdication — itself the resolution of the "Royal Question," a constitutional crisis so bitter it had split the country along linguistic and political lines and left four people dead in Liège after gendarmes opened fire on a crowd of protesters. The 25th anniversary issue in 1976 was therefore as much a quiet acknowledgment of national survival as a commemorative occasion.
Belgium struck both French and Dutch text versions simultaneously, with the language split reflected in the KM and Lazard-Frères reference numbers assigned to each.
Baudouin I acceded to the Belgian throne on July 11, 1951, following Leopold III's controversial abdication — itself the resolution of the "Royal Question," a constitutional crisis so bitter it had split the country along linguistic and political lines and left four people dead in Liège after gendarmes opened fire on a crowd of protesters. The 25th anniversary issue in 1976 was therefore as much a quiet acknowledgment of national survival as a commemorative occasion.
Belgium struck both French and Dutch text versions simultaneously, with the language split reflected in the KM and Lazard-Frères reference numbers assigned to each.