Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Francs - Léopold III BELGIQUE:BELGIE
| Issuer | Belgium |
|---|---|
| Year | 1939-1940 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Bare-headed effigy of King Leopold III facing left, with his name LEOPOLD III rendered in raised legend above. The date of issue and the engraver's signature RAU appear in the lower field beneath the portrait. The design is executed in a restrained, classical style typical of Belgian coinage of the interwar period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | LEOPOLD III 1939 RAU |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Belgium struck these 50-franc pieces in both 1939 and 1940 — the 1940 date making it one of the more historically loaded coins in the modern Belgian series. Germany invaded on May 10th of that year, and Léopold III surrendered the Belgian army eighteen days later. Coins dated 1940 were struck and in some cases distributed under occupation conditions, with the king already a prisoner in his own palace at Laeken.
The postwar controversy over Léopold's conduct during the occupation — the so-called "Royal Question" — eventually forced his abdication in 1951. The 1940-dated pieces carry that weight without advertising it.