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5 Franken Ghent - WW1 German Occupation Coinage
| Issuer | City of Ghent (Stad Gent / Ville de Gand) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
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| Shape | Round |
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| Reverse description | The denomination 5 is prominently displayed as a large raised numeral at the centre of a raised circular disc, around which the bilingual denominations FRANCS and FRANKEN arc above and below respectively, flanked by decorative floral ornaments. This central motif is set within a raised diamond-shaped frame adorned with foliate decoration at each corner. The date 1917 appears at the base within the diamond frame. Around the outer circular border, the bilingual redemption inscriptions UIT BETAALBAAR JANUARI 1920 (Dutch, upper left) and REMBOURSABLE JANVIER 1920 (French, lower right) are inscribed, indicating the token's reimbursement deadline of January 1920. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Ghent's occupation coinage of 1917 was a direct consequence of Germany's systematic stripping of Belgian copper and nickel reserves for war production. With the National Bank of Belgium evacuated to London and official currency in acute short supply, municipal authorities across occupied Belgium were authorized — under German supervision — to issue their own emergency tokens. Ghent produced issues in multiple denominations, all in iron or iron-based alloys precisely because the metals with any pre-war monetary value had already been requisitioned.
The brass plating on iron served a functional rather than aesthetic purpose: bare iron corrodes rapidly in circulation, and degraded tokens created counting and vending problems the occupation administration had no patience to manage.