To obviate the great shortage of fractional currency in occupied
Belgium, a shortage that hindered the most modest transactions, the
German authorities decided early in March, 1918, to emit a large
issue of zinc coins with a face value of 50 centimes, (10 cents.) The
new coins have a diameter of 24 millimeters and bear on the face a
coat-of-arms with a lion above a laurel branch, and with the value
of the coin on the right. The obverse bears a five-pointed star,
the inscription "België-Belgique," and the date. The centre of each
coin is pierced by a hole 4-1/2 millimeters in diameter.