2017-06-20 Tue

In 1904, the first year when the Belgium Gold Franc was struck, an obverse die trial was used to test the die. The gold planchet was larger in diameter than the regular issue silver planchet. The coin was first struck using a 1903 obverse die that has French text. In 1903, patterns with the obverse design with French text were struck. The 1904 obverse die with Dutch text was used to strike it again. The portrait, lettering and denticles clearly show the difference in both strikes. BELGES (French) is on the understrike and BELGEN (Dutch) is on the overstrike. The coin has a matte or granular finish. This is something exciting for those who are into gold strikings, patterns, die trials and mint errors.