Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Francs - Léopold II Pattern
| Issuer | Congo Free State (1885-1908) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1896 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Round |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 5 FRANCS TRAVAIL ET PROGRES 1896 |
| Edge | Lettered |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Congo Free State was Leopold II's personal property — not a Belgian colony, but a privately held territory answerable to one man. By 1896, the rubber extraction regime was already generating the atrocities that would eventually force international intervention, yet Leopold was simultaneously attempting to project the image of a legitimate sovereign state, complete with a proper coinage. This pattern is part of that effort.
KM#Pn20 never entered circulation. Patterns for the Congo Free State are rare precisely because so few were struck, and fewer still survived outside institutional collections.