5000 Francs

This high-denomination note circulated through a period when 5,000 francs still carried genuine purchasing weight — by the late 1980s, Belgian inflation had cooled considerably from the crisis years of the 1970s, so the note functioned as a practical large-transaction instrument rather than an inflationary stopgap. The decade-long print run spanning 1982 to 1992 reflects stable monetary conditions rather than emergency reissue.

Henri Decuyper's intaglio work on the obverse repays close inspection — the depth and line control in this series is among the finer examples of late 20th-century Belgian engraving. Decuyper was a career engraver at the Banque Nationale's own printing works in Brussels, and the quality differential between his obverse and the reverse is noticeable to a trained eye.