Belgium: Coins Issued and Used

The Belgian franc (French: Franc belge, Dutch: Belgische frank, German: Belgischer Franken) was the currency of the Kingdom of Belgium from 1832 until 2002 when the Euro was introduced. It was subdivided into 100 subunits, known as centimes (French), centiem (Dutch) or Centime (German).

Being a bilingual country with two official languages, Belgian coins have most often shown both French and Flemish Dutch text, and sometimes one or the other depending on the type or time period to represent which region the coin is meant to represent. In later 20th century issues, the text is almost without exception divided between two types of coins, with Flemish issues reading "België" and "Frank," and French issues reading "Belgique" and "Franc(s)."

Initially, the currency was monolingual in French. From 1886, some Belgian coins also carried the Dutch language legends. 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 1887 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.

Between 1944 and 2002, 1 Luxembourg franc was equal to 1 Belgian franc. Both francs were legal tender in the two countries.

Like 10 other European currencies, the Belgian/Luxembourgish franc ceased to exist on 1 January 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 on 28 February 2002.