50 Francs / 10 Belgas

The "Belga" was introduced in 1926 as a trade unit equal to five francs, an attempt to simplify Belgium's tangled exchange arithmetic with its trading partners. This note, denominated in both currencies simultaneously, sits in the transitional window when neither unit had yet won public confidence — the franc remained the mental currency of everyday Belgians, while the belga was largely a commercial and banking abstraction.

Waterlow & Sons printed the series in London, despite the "Printed: Belgium" attribution — worth scrutinizing, as plate origin and press location were sometimes recorded inconsistently in this period. Constant Montald, a Belgian Symbolist painter, supplied the design work, an unusual choice of artist for a national banknote commission.