Catalog
50 Francs
| Issuer | Banque Nationale de Belgique |
|---|---|
| Year | 1871 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Printed in blue ink throughout, the obverse carries an allegorical vignette at the left margin with a seated female figure accompanied by two children, and a further child figure at the right. Denomination and face values appear in blue letterpress within a fine-line guilloche border frame. The engraved work is attributed to Ch. Wullschleger after the design of H. Hendrickx. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE NATIONALE Bruxelles, le 6 Avril 1871. CINQUANTE FRANCS PAYABLE À VUE LA LOI PUNIT LE CONTREFACTEUR DES TRAVAUX FORCÉS. (Translation: National Bank Brussels, April 6th, 1871. Fifty Francs Payable on sight. The law punishes the counterfeiter with forced labor.) |
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| Comments |
Belgium's 1871 50 Francs issue came during a period of acute monetary sensitivity — the Franco-Prussian War had just collapsed confidence in French paper, and the Banque Nationale was under quiet pressure to demonstrate the solidity of its own circulation. The engraving is the work of Charles Wullschleger, a Swiss-born craftsman whose intaglio work for Brussels was notably finer than much of what the National Bank's in-house press produced in surrounding decades.
Henri Hendrickx handled the design. Pick 54 is genuinely scarce in any grade — low surviving populations suggest most examples were retired and pulped well before the early twentieth century redemption cycles.