50 Francs

The Société Générale pour Favoriser l'Industrie Nationale was a Belgian joint-stock bank founded in 1822 under William I of the Netherlands, originally conceived as an instrument of industrial financing rather than a traditional note-issuing institution. After Belgian independence in 1830, it repositioned itself and became one of the dominant private banks still authorized to issue paper currency during the transitional decade before the National Bank of Belgium was established in 1850 and absorbed the note-issuing privilege entirely.

By 1837, the Société Générale was operating in a competitive field — several Belgian banks still held issue rights simultaneously, which created persistent public skepticism about note values and interchangeability.