10 Sous Assignat

The 10 sous assignat was introduced in 1792 specifically to address a severe shortage of small-denomination coin in revolutionary France — copper and silver had been hoarded or melted, leaving ordinary transactions nearly impossible. The assignat system, originally conceived as land-backed bonds secured against confiscated Church and émigré property, had by this point collapsed into something closer to forced paper currency, with the small denominations bearing the worst of public distrust.

Gatteaux, a medalist and engraver at the Paris Mint, contributed designs across several assignat denominations. The dry stamp and watermark on this issue were genuine attempts at anti-counterfeiting, though forgers — many operating from émigré networks in Britain and the Austrian Netherlands — reproduced even these features with troubling accuracy.