heads and tale

[Figleaf]

I spotted a pile of large silver coins in the window of a Rome money changer, covered with grey and brown. Most were the usual suspects, but two were not yet in the collection. A treatment with a soft eraser took off the dust and fat of decades and out came a nice coin. It is full of hairline scratches and I didn't catch all of the dirt, but the seller wouldn't have recognized it. I like the shrunken head collection.

Peter

[Figleaf]

The other coin I found came out worse. There's a milky white spot on the king's face that won't disappear. I find the design a bit uninspired too.

Peter

[bart]

You're right about the 500 francs coin, Peter! I also find the "5 portraits as a map of Belgium" very appealing.

These coins were intended to be silver, but they were struck during the Hunt-silver crisis. As silver was much too expensive, the government decided to struck these in copper-nickel, plated with silver. The layers are composed of 0.835 silver and make 20 % of the coin.

About the other coin: well... it's the king's portrait... and it's the king's initial... and that's it!

These coins could be purchased at nominal value. These were also struck in proof-like and those were sold at the double of face value. (The 500 francs in proof-like were struck in 0.510 silver instead of plaqué-silver)

Bart

[Figleaf]

These coins were intended to be silver, but they were struck during the Hunt-silver crisis. As silver was much too expensive, the government decided to struck these in copper-nickel, plated with silver. The layers are composed of 0.835 silver and make 20 % of the coin.

It took a while to sink in, but I think that explains the white spot on the second coin: it's the copper-nickel coming through. Thanks, Bart. BTW, I got almost all the discoloration off the first coin now. It looks even better now that I know that it was issued at face.

I read the signature below the king's head as Ant. Luyckx. Is he related to Luc Luyckx?

Peter

[translateltd]

You're right about the 500 francs coin, Peter! I also find the "5 portraits as a map of Belgium" very appealing.

I never spotted the parallel between the layout of the effigies and the map on the other side - very clever!

[chrisild]

Aren't there two version of the coins? (I mean, apart from Dutch and French.) Seems that one is silver-plated Cu-Ni, and another one - the proof piece - is Ag510. By the way, Luc Luycx has no K in his name. But of course the two could still be related ...

Christian

[bart]

I read the signature below the king's head as Ant. Luyckx. Is he related to Luc Luyckx?

The same thought came up in my mind. It's until chrisild noticed that Luc Luycx' name was written without a K that I noticed it.
Luyckx (with K) is a common name in Flanders, so I wrote Luc Luycx' name wrong for years.

About the 250 francs coin: Antoon Luyckx ( a known sculptor) designed only the obverse. The royal monogram on the reverse was designed by Marc Severin, while the crown above the B-monogram was designed by the heraldry-expert André Toussaint. (ref. "De Belgische Frank", encyclopedia of the Belgian circulation issues)
Even of these coins there are 2 versions, apart from the Dutch and French legends: the regular issues have a reeded edge, while the proof-like issues have 25 stars on the edge.

It took a while to sink in, but I think that explains the white spot on the second coin: it's the copper-nickel coming through.

Only the first coin (500 francs) is plated. The second coin was struck in 0.835 silver (and 0.165 copper)

Bart