500 Francs Independence, French text

Belgium issued bilingual commemorative coins in both French and Dutch versions throughout this period — a political necessity in a country where linguistic parity in official currency had become non-negotiable by law. The 1980 independence anniversary series marked 150 years since Belgium broke from the Kingdom of the Netherlands following the Brussels uprising of August 1830. The French-text version, catalogued separately from its Dutch counterpart, is the more commonly encountered of the two in practice, though both were struck in comparable numbers.