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The 'Belgian franc' (Dutch : ''Belgische frank'' - French : ''franc belge'' - German : ''Belgischer Franken'') was the currency of Belgium, before the adoption of the euro. It was subdivided into 100 centiem (Dutch), centimes (French) or Centime (German), but the use of this subdivision was nearly extinguished in the final years.

Contents

History

Linguistics

Use of Luxembourgish francs in Belgium

Coins

Banknotes

See also

External links

History

The conquest of most of western Europe by revolutionary and Napoleonic France led to the French franc's wide circulation. In the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium), the franc replaced the kronenthaler. This was in turn replaced by the Dutch gulden when the Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed.
Following independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the new Kingdom of Belgium in 1832 adopted its own franc, equivalent to the French one, followed by Luxembourg in 1848 and Switzerland in 1850. Newly-unified Italy adopted the lira on a similar basis in 1862.
In 1865 France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy created the Latin Monetary Union (to be joined by Greece in 1868): each would possess a national currency unit (franc, lira, drachma) worth 4.5 g of silver or 290.322 mg of fine gold, all freely exchangeable at a rate of 1:1. In the 1870s the gold value was made the fixed standard, a situation which was to continue until 1914.
In 1926, Belgium, as well as France, experienced depreciation and an abrupt collapse of confidence, leading to the introduction of a new gold currency for international transactions, the ''belga'' worth 5 francs, and the country's withdrawal from the monetary union, which ceased to exist at the end of the year. The belga was tied to the British pound at a rate of 35 belgas (175 francs) = 1 pound and was thus put on a gold standard of 1 belga = 209.211 mg fine gold. The 1921 monetary union of Belgium and Luxembourg survived, however, forming the basis for full economic union in 1932. In 1935, the Belgian franc was devalued by 28% to 150.632 mg fine gold and the link between the Luxembourg and Belgian francs was revised to 1 Luxembourgish franc = 1¼ Belgian francs.
Following Belgium's occupation by Germany in May, 1940, the franc was fixed at a value of 0.1 Reichsmark, reduced to 0.08 Reichsmark in July, 1940. Following liberation in 1944, the franc entered into the Bretton Woods system, with an initial exchange rate of 43.77 francs = US dollar set on October 5. This was changed to 43.8275 in 1946 and then to 50 following the devaluation of the British pound in September 1949. The Belgian franc was devaluated again in 1982.
Like 10 other European currencies, the Belgian/Luxembourgish franc ceased to exist in January 1, 1999, when it became fixed at 1 EUR= 40.3399 BEF/LUF, thus a franc was worth € 0.024789. Old franc coins and notes lost their legal tender status in February 28, 2002.

Linguistics

Initially, the currency was monolingual in French. However, Dutch language coins were introduced from 1869. Some later coins featured inscriptions in both languages. When the two languages appeared on either side of the same face of a coin, two versions were still produced, one with Dutch to the left and French to the right, and one with the alternate arrangement. Banknotes became bilingual in the 1880s and, from 1992, banknotes were introduced which were trilingual, with either French or Dutch on the obverse and German and the remaining language on the reverse. Some commemorative coins were issued with German inscriptions but none for circulation.

Use of Luxembourgish francs in Belgium

Between 1944 and 2002, 1 Luxembourgish franc was equal to 1 Belgian franc. Both francs were legal tender in the two countries. Nevertheless, payment with Luxembourgish banknotes were commonly denied by shopkeepers in Belgium, either by ignorance or by fear that their other customers would refuse the banknotes (again, either by ignorance or fear of being denied payment with it later), forcing them to go through the hassle of a trip to their bank to redeem the value of the banknote.

Coins

The denominations of the Belgian franc in previously circulation are:

Previously Circulating Coins
Image	Value	Diameter	Weight	Composition	Obverse	Reverse	First Minted	Obsolete
	25 centimes	16 mm	2.00 g	Cu : 75 % Ni : 25 %	??	??	1964	1980
50 centimes	50 centimes	19 mm	2.75 g	Cu : 95 % Sn : 3 % Zn : 3 %	??	??	1952	2002
1 franc	1 franc	21 mm	4.00 g	Cu : 75 % Ni : 25 %	??	??	1950	??
1 franc	1 franc	18 mm	2.75 g	Fe : 94 % Ni : 6 %	??	??	1988	2002
5 francs	5 francs	24 mm	6.00 g	Cu : 75 % Ni : 25 %	??	??	1948	??
5 francs	5 francs	24 mm	5.50 g	Cu : 92 % Al : 6 % Ni : 2 %	??	??	1986	2002
	10 francs	27 mm	8.00 g	Ni : 100 %	??	??	1969	1985
20 francs	20 francs	25.65 mm	8.50 g	Cu : 92 % Ni : 6 % Al : 2 %	??	??	1980	2002
	50 francs	22.75 mm	7.00 g	Ni : 100 %	??	??	1987	2002

Banknotes

Set taken out of circulation on 1 January 2002

★ 100 francs: James Ensor

★ 200 francs: Adolphe Sax

★ 500 francs: René Magritte

★ 1000 francs: Constant Permeke

★ 2000 francs: Victor Horta

★ 10,000 francs: Albert II of Belgium and Queen Paola of Belgium
Earlier notes

★ 20 francs: King Baudouin

★ 50 francs: King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola

★ 100 francs: Hendrik Beyaert

★ 1000 francs: André Ernest Modeste Grétry

★ 5000 francs: Guido Gezelle

★ 10,000 francs: King Baudouin of Belgium and Queen Fabiola of Belgium

See also

★ Belgian euro coins

★ Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union

★ Economy of Belgium

External links

★ Overview of Belgian franc from the BBC