½ franc - 1844 - Leopold I laureate head

The coin's story

This silver half franc in 900 thousandths silver belongs to the first series of independent Belgium, struck from 1833 to 1844 with the effigy of Leopold I, first King of the Belgians, who took the oath on 21 July 1831. The King wears a wreath of oak leaves. The engraver, Joseph-Pierre Braemt (1796-1864), engraver general of the Brussels Mint, made the first Belgian coins and signs BRAEMT F. (Braemt fecit, Braemt made it). The reverse shows the value within an olive wreath, above a star. The 1844 date, the last of the series, was struck in 1,584,000 pieces. The coin was demonetised on 26 July 1868.