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100 Francs / 20 Belgas Front in Dutch
| Issuer | Nationale Bank van België / Banque Nationale de Belgique |
|---|---|
| Year | 1944 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 179 × 108 mm |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Orange intaglio print on the Dutch-language face of the note, with paired bust portraits of King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth positioned at left and right flanking a central allegorical vignette of a Greco-Roman personification of agriculture. The guilloche underprint and surrounding border panels carry the denomination values in both frank and belgas, with the engraver's and designer's credits lettered in the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Orange intaglio print on the French-language face of the note, centred on an allegorical vignette personifying the rivers Meuse (Mosa) and Scheldt (Scaldis), the two principal waterways traversing Belgium. The National Bank seal and facsimile signatures of the Treasurer and Governor appear within the guilloche border panels, which carry repeated denomination values and the bank's full French title. |
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| Comments |
Belgium's liberation in September 1944 created an immediate currency problem: German-occupation francs were still circulating alongside Allied Military Currency, and the pre-war note stock had long since been exhausted. This note was part of the transitional series printed to re-establish the National Bank's authority, though a compulsory exchange decree issued that October — the "monetary purge" — meant most notes returned to the bank within weeks of issue, sharply limiting what actually stayed in circulation.
Vloors had designed the underlying artwork well before the war. Minguet's intaglio work on the obverse is notably finer than Poortman's reverse, a mismatch visible under magnification that reflects the disrupted production conditions of the period.