By 1901, Belgium had been striking this type continuously since 1866, and the French-text variant exists specifically because Belgian law required parallel coinage series in both French and Dutch — a legislative compromise baked into the country's founding tensions between Walloon and Flemish communities. The two versions circulated together without distinction in daily commerce, which is why finding either in uncirculated condition is genuinely difficult.
KM#50 saw its final year of production in 1909, the same year Léopold II died, leaving behind the Congo Free State scandal that had consumed the last decade of his reign.
By 1901, Belgium had been striking this type continuously since 1866, and the French-text variant exists specifically because Belgian law required parallel coinage series in both French and Dutch — a legislative compromise baked into the country's founding tensions between Walloon and Flemish communities. The two versions circulated together without distinction in daily commerce, which is why finding either in uncirculated condition is genuinely difficult.
KM#50 saw its final year of production in 1909, the same year Léopold II died, leaving behind the Congo Free State scandal that had consumed the last decade of his reign.