The 500 francs Magritte type, issued 16th April 1998, was the last new note of a series that started some 147 years ago. 1998 was also the first centenary of Magritte’s birthday. To commemorate this Belgian surrealist artist the Brussels Museum of Fine Arts organised an exhibition with no less than 335 pieces out of his vast body of work.
Greeks love their history and the introduction of the euro coins and notes offered them a perfect occasion to pass on this passion to the rest of Europe. With the owl and the olive branch on the national side of their 1 euro coin they underline their rich past, the historic importance of the Athenian city-state and last but not least the fact that Greece is the cradle of European coinage.
There’s hardly any discussion amongst historians that Julius Caesar was a great statesman. He was also the first Roman who dared to depict himself on one of his coins. And even 20 centuries later his name is still on people’s lips and continues to appeal to one’s imagination. Who was this famous ruler?
In 1830 Belgium was the most industrialised country on the continent. In the period 1830-1848 a very small number of banks financed the Belgian industrial revolution. Each of them had the right to issue paper money.
Belgium got its independence in 1830. The history of the Belgian franc – replaced by the euro in 1999 – dates back to 1832 when its characteristics were defined by law. The first “belgian” coins were struck a few years earlier, in 1790.
Frans Francken II, a talented Flemish painter (Antwerp, 1581-1642) who ran an important workshop in his hometown, belonged to an artistic family. Both his father and his son were painters as well, although he was the most productive and the best known of the Francken dynasty.
One may wonder why the Museum of the National Bank of Belgium placed a wooden table right in the centre of the main exhibition hall where the history of money is told. The answer is quite simple, the bench belonged to a money changer. The owner of the bench did not only change money, as his profession might suggest, he also acted as a banker. Money changers found their way to the cities of the Low Countries in the Late Middle Ages. If you only think about the enormous variety of coins in circulation, it becomes quite obvious money changers played an important role in the economic life of a medieval citizen.
The design of the euro banknotes depicts the architectural styles of seven periods in Europe’s cultural history. Compared to the former notes of the member states of the euro area which can be regarded as glorious portrait galleries, the euro notes no longer depict portraits from famous persons of the euro area. Questions that might have given rise to discussion were, amongst others: who? males? females? what nationality? In the 20th century the portrait became one of the main motifs of the Belgian notes.
First paper, then paper money. This is pure logic. It is hardly surprising that the first notes or better, the first paper money, appeared in China. With the invention of paper and printing on its account, this country was almost destined to produce the first paper money.
Today, we use salt to season food, for instance on French fries. But do you know that throughout history salt was used on a far more larger scale than nowadays? And that it was a common means of payment?
