I'm a little 'iffy on the Belgian issues. I like some of their designs, but I am annoyed by the two language issues Flemish and French. It makes it that much harder to collect what is otherwise a standard country in most foreign bins. Here's few examples from my collection:
Don't mix languages and people up. Those two languages on the coins are French and Dutch, used by the Walloon and the Flemish population. Several modern (21c) Belgian coins also have inscriptions in German, as that is a minority language in Belgium. The good thing is, when Belgium went from the franc/frank to the euro, they also did away with those "dual" issues. What you see instead is the country code "BE", or the word "Belgium" in the three languages. Christian
I kind of like the older (pre-1940s) Belgian coins but I mostly hate the more modern ones. I've also found from trying to resell doubles that I get that there's very little market for Belgian coins. No one wants them.
Maybe nobody in your neighborhood. What is certainly true is that the Belgian circulation coins have a very uniform appearance: The common sides are the same as those from the other member states, and the country specific sides all show the very same portrait of King Philippe/Filip (or, before 2014, King Albert). Some of the commemorative coins are nice though. That also applies to a few collector coins, but those are surcharged like modern silver/gold issues from most countries, and have low mintages ... Christian
I have a bunch of the zink war time Belgian coins, and they can't really compare to these big, silver dollar size coins.
I collect Belgium coins in both languages, I see it as collecting both the P and D mints of modern US coins.
Interesting comment... But P and D mints are just 2 separate US Mints minting the same exact US coins... using the same language.
Rushmore still has a point - back when Belgium did that "two languages" thing on coins, the designs were the same except for (parts of) the text. So some may say they collect the French or Dutch version of the pre-euro coins only, others "do" both. But what is depicted on the coins is the same regardless of the language. Christian
The 1958 world's fair commemorative was not ONLY issued in two languages, but also in coin AND medal alignment! I do not recall if any other Belgian coins fit this.
