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50 Francs
| Issuer | Banque Nationale de Belgique |
|---|---|
| Year | 1851 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed note with allegorical putti vignettes at each corner and ornate guilloche borders. Centre bears the inscription BANQUE NATIONALE in bold lettering above CINQUANTE FRANCS, with ROYAUME DE BELGIQUE at top and the denomination numeral 50 flanking. Belgian royal arms appear at lower centre, with manuscript date and two handwritten signatures below. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Mirror-image impression of the obverse design visible through the thin cotton paper, presenting the full layout in reverse as a show-through effect typical of mid-19th century single-sided Belgian banknote production. The guilloche border framework and corner allegorical figures are discernible, with the central inscriptions reading in reverse. |
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| Comments |
The Banque Nationale de Belgique was itself only founded in 1850, making this 1851 note among the earliest issues of an institution still establishing its operational procedures. Belgium had been printing its own notes since the Société Générale era, but the new central bank brought with it standardized emission controls that predecessor institutions had never enforced with any consistency.
Cotton substrate was the only practical choice at this date for durability, but Belgian-printed notes of this period are notably prone to foxing along fold lines — a known weakness in the early BNB paper stock rather than a sign of unusual wear.