100 Francs 1966, Belgium
| in Krause book | Number: 134a |
| Years of issue: | 07.11.1966 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | Le Gouverneur: Hubert Ansiaux (in office from 08.08.1957 till 17.02.1971), Le Tresorier: Maurice Williot (in office from 02.04.1956 till 31.01.1963) |
| Serie: | 1961 - 1971 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 01.02.1962 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 138 х 69 |
| Printer: | Belgian Nationalbank, Brussels |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
HM The King Baudouin.
Baudouin (Dutch: Boudewijn; 7 September 1930 – 31 July 1993) reigned as the fifth King of the Belgians, following his father's abdication, from 1951 until his death in 1993. He was the last Belgian king to be sovereign of Congo.
He was the elder son of King Leopold III (1901–83) and his first wife, Princess Astrid of Sweden (1905–35). Because he had no children with his wife, Fabiola de Mora, the crown passed to his younger brother, Albert II (formerly Prince of Liège), following his death. 
Avers:
The engraving on banknote is made after this self-portrait of Lambert Lombard, dated by first half of XVI century.
Lambert Lombard (c. 1505 – August 1566) was a Renaissance painter, architect and theorist for the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. During his career he worked for Jan Gossaert in Middelburg and trained Frans Floris.
Lombard was born in Liège, where in 1532 he became court painter and architect. A few paintings and many drawings have been preserved.
In 1537 he was sent to Rome by Erard de la Marck, prince-bishop of Liège, to buy works of art, and he discovered the wonders of the Italian Renaissance. On his return he brought not only works of art, but also the new ideas concerning art and the position of the artist, to Liège.
His pupils were Frans Floris, Hendrick Goltzius, Willem Key, Dominicus Lampsonius, Jan Ramey, and Lambert Suavius. Dominicus Lampsonius wrote a biography of Lombard, The Life of Lambert Lombard.
Centered, on background, are the elements of the coat of arms of Liege (where Lombard was born) - Perron and the lions.
The arms were first granted on June 6, 1811 by Napoleon. On November 24 the arms were granted by the Dutch government, with two lion supporters. After the First World War the arms were again granted on September 12, 1924 with 2 military crosses. A third was added on May 25, 1928 and a fourth on February 1, 1947. These arms were confirmed after the mergers on February 2, 1978.
The arms of Liège show a monument or 'perron'. The perron is most likely derived form an actual monument in the city. It is first seen on a coin of Hendrik II of Limburg, as Prince-Bishop of Liège, dating between 1145 and 1165. The perron was shown freely on coins until the mid 14th century, when the symbol was placed in a shield. Whether the city at the time already used it as city arms is not known.
Ever since the perron, including the base with the three lions, has been the arms of the city. The actual shape, however has varied widely during the centuries, and similarly, not all images show the lions. In the late XVII century the whole name, LIÈGE was shown around the perron. The letters L and G appear for the first time in the late XVIII century.
The arms granted by Napoleon show the perron without the lions, which were transformed to three lion heads in the base of the arms. In the chief three bees, symbol of a city of the First Rank, were added.
Why in 1819 two lion supporters were added is not known. Unfortunately the register only shows the lions partially drawn.
A perron (in French; also Dutch: perroen) is a stone column, often decorated with a globus cruciger, that was erected in cities belonging to the erstwhile Prince-Bishopric of Liège (980-1795). They were primarily built in the so-called Good Cities (Bonnes Villes or Goede Steden) that formed the primary towns of the polity. Many survive, though not in their original form.
The columns came to symbolize local freedom and autonomy (initially bishopric autonomy, later urban autonomy). This stemmed from their function as places where laws were proclaimed and justice was administered. However, the actual origin of the symbols of the column is unclear. In 1467, after recapturing the rebellious city of Liège, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, had the city's perron dismantled and removed to Bruges, not to be returned until after his death. This was "viewed both as a punishment of the people of Liège and as a clear warning to any Flemish subjects who might be tempted to question the duke's authority". (www.ngw.nl)
At the bottom is the top of column (till now not known).
Denominations in numerals are in three corners, in words at the top.
Revers:
On background, centered, is the courtyard of The Palace of the Prince-Bishops (Palais des Princes-Évêques) in Liege (the hometown of Lambert Lombard).
The Palace of the Prince-Bishops (French: Palais des Princes-Evêques) is a historic building situated on place Saint-Lambert in the center of Liège, Belgium. It was the residence of former Prince-Bishops of Liège. It once faced the monumental Cathedral of Saint Lambert.
Its imposing facade dominates the end of the place St-Lambert, center of commercial life in Liège, where St Lambert's Cathedral formerly stood. Two buildings preceded the present palace, a first palace integrated with the fortifications was built about 1000 CE by Bishop Notger, but it was destroyed in the fire of 1185. The palace was reconstructed under Rudolf of Zähringen. This building was much damaged in the sack of the city by the Burgundians and was also burnt in 1505.
On mounting the episcopal throne in 1505 Bishop Érard de La Marck found the palace in ruins and entrusted the construction of a new one to the master builder Arnold van Mulken (nl) in 1526. It was finished at the end of the 16th century. The principal facade on the south was completely rebuilt after the fire of 1734 in the Louis XIV-Regency style under the direction of the Brussels architect Jean-André Anneessens, son of François Anneessens.
In 1849, a new west wing was built by the architect Jean-Charles Delsaux (fr), in the same style as the old palace to accommodate the provincial government.
At present the building is occupied by the provincial services of Liège and the Palais de Justice. The great courtyard is surrounded by galleries of arcades and 60 massives and elegant columns. The variety of the decoration of these columns is extraordinary. The second courtyard which is reached from the interior of the palace is more intimate and is closed to the public except on rare occasions such as heritage days. The judicial institutions of Liège having been dispersed on about ten sites in the city a vast project to extend the palace was undertaken. It involves various buildings facing the west side of the palace and brought them together in the center of the city.
Centered, on foreground, is the god Apollo with Cithara, the bow and arrows, standing on killed, by himself, dragon Python.
Apollo (Attic, Ionic, and Homeric Greek: Ἀπόλλων, Apollōn (GEN Ἀπόλλωνος); Doric: Ἀπέλλων, Apellōn; Arcadocypriot: Ἀπείλων, Apeilōn; Aeolic: Ἄπλουν, Aploun; Latin: Apollō) is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The ideal of the kouros (a beardless, athletic youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry, and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu.
There are various versions of Python's birth and death at the hands of Apollo. In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, now thought to have been composed in 522 BCE when the archaic period in Greek history was giving way to the Classical period, a small detail is provided regarding Apollo's combat with the serpent, in some sections identified as the deadly Drakaina, or her parent.
The version related by Hyginus holds that when Zeus lay with the goddess Leto, and she was to deliver Artemis and Apollo, Hera was jealous and sent Python to pursue Leto throughout the lands, so that she could not deliver wherever the sun shone. Thus when Apollo was grown he wanted to avenge his mother's plight and pursued Python, making his way straight for Mount Parnassus where the serpent dwelled, and chased it to the oracle of Gaia at Delphi; there he dared to penetrate the sacred precinct and kill it with his arrows beside the rock cleft where the priestess sat on her tripod. Robert Graves, who habitually read into primitive myths a retelling of archaic political and social turmoil, saw in this the capturing by Hellenes of a pre-Hellenic shrine. "To placate local opinion at Delphi," he wrote in The Greek Myths, "regular funeral games were instituted in honour of the dead hero Python, and her priestess was retained in office."
The politics are conjectural, but the myth reports that Zeus ordered Apollo to purify himself for the sacrilege and instituted the Pythian Games, over which Apollo was to preside, as penance for his act.
Erwin Rohde wrote that the Python was an earth spirit, who was conquered by Apollo, and buried under the Omphalos, and that it is a case of one god setting up his temple on the grave of another.
The priestess of the oracle at Delphi became known as the Pythia, after the place-name Pytho, which Greeks explained as named after the rotting (πύθειν) of the slain serpent's corpse in the strength of Hyperion (day) or Helios (the sun).
Karl Kerenyi points out that the older tales mentioned two dragons, who were perhaps intentionally conflated; the other was a female dragon (drakaina) named Delphyne in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, with whom dwelt a male serpent named Typhon: "The narrators seem to have confused the dragon of Delphi, Python, with Typhon or Typhoeus, the adversary of Zeus". The enemy dragoness "... actually became an Apollonian serpent, and Pythia, the priestess who gave oracles at Delphi, was named after him. Many pictures show the serpent Python living in amity with Apollo and guarding the Omphalos, the sacred navel-stone and mid-point of the earth, which stood in Apollo's temple" (Kerenyi 1951:136).
This myth has been described as an allegory for the dispersal of the fogs and clouds of vapor which arise from ponds and marshes (Python) by the rays of the sun (the arrows of Apollo).
Denominations in numerals are in top corners, in words on right side.
Comments:
Obverse and reverse designer: F.Massino-Bessi.
Obverse engraver: Charles Leclercqz.
Reverse engraver: Henri Decuyper.
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