Queen Mathilde will grace Belgian coins and stamps in honour of her 50th birthday, the Belgian Royal Mint has announced.
The Belgian queen will feature on a 12.5 Euro gold coin with her husband’s profile on the back—the first time that King Philippe and Queen Mathilde will be displayed together on a commemorative coin. It is legal tender in Belgium, and only 2,500 coins have been struck.
All the details on Queen Mathilde’s coin was shared on Twitter by Belgian royal journalist Wim Dehandschutter.
Queen Mathilde’s monogram and age is seen on the coin image, and the queen is wearing the Nine Provinces Tiara in the portrait. The coin was designed by Iris Bruijns.
In addition, a new portrait released by the Belgian Royal Court will be the image of Queen Mathilde used in a commemorative stamp issued by Belgian Post to mark the queen’s 50th birthday.
Queen Mathilde posed for two new official portraits at the Winter Gardens at the Palace of Laeken, the second of which is the image that will be used on stamps from 23 January. The Belgian Royal Court shared a short video on social media, captioning it, “The postman brought…The Queen’s new stamps!”
The Belgian Post confirmed that their next commemorative royal stamps will be issued in te summer to mark King Philippe’s first decade on the throne.
Queen Mathilde’s 50th birthday passed without any grand celebrations in Belgium, however, the Queen has been undertaking a series of mental health walks throughout the provinces of Belgium to encourage people to get outside and get active, and to talk about their mental health.
She also sat down with Belgian broadcasters for exclusive interviews where she spoke of her love of long walks with the dogs and without her telephone, and how Queen Fabiola always made her laugh. She also relayed a story of being in a bookstore and asked by a customer for recommendations for books on the Royal Family. “I said, ‘Oh, that’s very difficult.’ But I liked that so much.”
