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20 Francs
| Issuer | Banque Nationale de Belgique |
|---|---|
| Year | 1910-1920 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Printed in red and green, the obverse carries a left-side vignette of Minerva in classical armour standing beside a recumbent lion, with a wheel inscribed TRAVAIL ECONOMIE at her side. To the right, the Belgian heraldic shield with rampant lion is enclosed within a foliate wreath and scroll bearing the motto UNION FAIT LA FORCE, while a large guilloche numeral 20 occupies the centre, below the issuer's name BANQUE NATIONALE and the date 21-MAI-14. The lower margin bears two manuscript signatures above the designations Le Trésorier and Le Gouverneur, with the engraver's credit E. BIET SC. at lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
Louis Titz designed several note series for the Banque Nationale during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Édouard Biet's engraving work — primarily based in Paris — appeared on Belgian issues through plate arrangements that were common practice among European central banks of the period. The combination here is reasonably accomplished for its time, though the series is not among the more technically ambitious commissions either man undertook.
The 1910–1920 date range spans the German occupation of Belgium, during which the Banque Nationale continued operating under severe constraints. Notes issued after August 1914 circulated in an occupied country where the occupying authority was simultaneously pressuring Belgian financial institutions and issuing its own competing paper.