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10 Livres Assignat
| Issuer | Assemblée Nationale (France) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1791 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | LOI DU 16 DECEMBRE 1791. L'AN TROISIÈME DE LA LIBERTÉ Domaines nationaux. Assignat de dix livres payable au porteur. Série 10 La loi punit de mort le contrefacteur La nation récompense le dénonciateur 10 GATTEAUX |
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| Protection description | Two oval watermark impressions incorporated into the paper, visible on the reverse as faint oval forms at the left and right margins. |
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| Comments |
Assignats began as interest-bearing bonds secured against confiscated Church and émigré property, then were converted into circulating currency by degrees — a political improvisation that the Assemblée Nationale never fully resolved. This 10 Livres denomination sits in the middle period of that experiment, after the interest-bearing function was abandoned but before the catastrophic overprinting of the mid-1790s had undermined public confidence entirely.
Gatteaux, a medallist by training, brought an engraver's discipline to the plate work. The watermark was the primary defense against forgery, though counterfeiting was rampant regardless — the British government famously sponsored mass production of fake assignats as a deliberate instrument of economic warfare against Revolutionary France.