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50 Francs
| Issuer | Banque Nationale de Belgique |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Franc (1832-2001) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 50 BANQUE NATIONALE DE BELGIQUE 1.8.14 CINQUANTE FRANCS PAYABLES A VUE 1.10.14 LA LOI PUNIT LE CONTREFACTEUR DES TRAVAUX FORCÉS CONSTANT. MONTALD. ÉDOUARD. BIET SC. (Translation: National Bank of Belgium Fifty Francs Payable at sight The law punishes the counterfeiter with forced labor) |
| Reverse description | Green and brown intaglio, with all text in Dutch. To the left, a standing Belgian lion is paired with a seated female figure symbolising Intelligence and Work, who holds a sceptre and an open book. To the right, three female figures personify Art, Science, and Commerce. The anti-counterfeiting legal text in Dutch appears in an orange-framed panel at the base of the composition. |
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| Comments |
P#77 was issued just as Belgium entered the war in August 1914, and the timing matters enormously for survival rates. The German occupation disrupted normal banking operations almost immediately, and large quantities of circulating notes were either hoarded, confiscated, or removed from the country by refugees. Notes dated 1914 from this series consequently show up in heavily worn states far more often than issues from the preceding years.
Montald was a Belgian Symbolist painter — an unusual choice for banknote design work, and Biet's engraving had to translate that painterly sensibility into intaglio. The collaboration was not repeated under occupation-era issues.