Belgium 1862 10 centimes
This specimen was lot 74354 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, November 2022), where it sold for $144. The catalog description[1] noted, "BELGIUM. 10 Centimes, 1862. Brussels Mint. Leopold II. NGC MS-67. Tied for the highest graded coin, (TOP POP), at NGC. Light graphite gray toning and essentially perfect." Leopold was a prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha who married the daughter of George IV of England. After her death, he was offered the throne of Greece, which he wisely declined. In 1830, he accepted the throne of the new state of Belgium, recently separated from the Netherlands. A Protestant in a Catholic country, he tried to remain non-partisan and promoted railways as an alternative to the port of Antwerp, which the Dutch had blocked. This type of 1861-64 superseded the copper ten centimes that had been struck since independence. Copper-nickel as a coinage alloy matured and became very popular in the 1860's and drove out the last of the billon coinage.
Recorded mintage: 15,129,000, including 1862/1.
Specification: 4.62 g, copper-nickel, 21.4 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: KM-22.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, The November 2022 Collectors Choice Ancient & World Coins Auction, Featuring the Pat Johnson Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2022.
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