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50 Centimes - Léopold II Dutch text
| Issuer | Belgium |
|---|---|
| Year | 1866-1899 |
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| Orientation | Coin alignment ↑↓ |
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| Obverse description | Left-facing effigy of King Leopold II of Belgium, rendered in high relief with fine portrait detail characteristic of Léopold Wiener's engraving style. The king is depicted bare-headed with naturalistic facial features. The encircling legend in Dutch reads 'LEOPOLD II KONING DER BELGEN', identifying the monarch in his Dutch-language title. The engraver's signature 'L.WIENER' appears below the truncation of the bust. The field is smooth and unadorned, allowing the portrait to dominate the composition. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Belgium's bilingual coinage divide hardened significantly after 1880, when Flemish political pressure forced the mint to produce parallel Dutch- and French-text versions of most circulating silver. These 50-centime pieces in Dutch were struck across a long run, but annual mintages varied wildly — certain dates from the 1880s and 1890s are genuinely scarce, while others were produced by the millions. The KM#27 designation covers the entire range without distinguishing them, which routinely misleads buyers into treating all dates as equivalent.
The .835 fineness was established by the Latin Monetary Union conventions of 1865.