500 Francs

Pick 50 is among the earliest large-denomination notes issued by the Banque Nationale de Belgique following its founding in 1850. The bank was established by royal decree specifically to unify a fragmented Belgian monetary system still operating through competing provincial institutions, and the 500 Franc denomination was never intended for ordinary commerce — it functioned primarily as an instrument of interbank settlement and merchant credit.

Surviving examples are genuinely rare. The redemption and destruction rate for high-denomination notes of this period was thorough, and Belgium's damp climate has not been kind to mid-nineteenth century cotton stock.