100 Francs

Léopold Wiener was primarily a medallist — his work for the Royal Belgian Mint ran to hundreds of dies — which makes his involvement in banknote design for the Banque Nationale something of a sideline, though his engraver's instinct for fine relief work translated directly into the intaglio-heavy style characteristic of these early issues. The National Bank's in-house printing works had only been operational for a few years by 1856, and the press was still finding its footing against the established European security printers.

Pick 47 is among the scarcer survivors of the series. Belgian notes of this period circulated hard and were not systematically preserved by the issuing bank.