5 Centimes - Léopold III BELGIQUE-BELGIE

Belgium's wartime zinc coinage was a direct consequence of German occupation — copper and nickel were requisitioned for the Reich's war economy, forcing the remaining Belgian monetary authority to issue coins in zinc, a metal the occupiers deemed strategically expendable. The 1941–1943 dates span the period of tightest German administrative control over Belgian industry, including the mint at Brussels.

Zinc corrodes aggressively in humid conditions, and surviving examples without pitting or surface degradation are genuinely scarce despite high original mintages.