Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Centimes - Léopold II
| Issuer | Congo Free State (1885-1908) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1906-1908 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Latin |
| Reverse lettering | 5 CENTIMES 1906 |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Congo Free State was not a nation in any conventional sense — it was the private property of Léopold II, registered to him personally at the 1885 Berlin Conference. Revenue extracted from rubber and ivory, enforced through mutilation and murder, financed every aspect of administration including its coinage. By the time these pieces were struck, international pressure over atrocities documented by E.D. Morel and Roger Casement had already forced Belgian parliamentary debate. The Free State was transferred to Belgium in 1908, making this one of the final coin types issued under personal royal ownership of an entire territory.