100 Livres Assignat

The 100 Livres assignat of 1790–91 belongs to the earliest phase of assignat issue, when the instrument was still technically a bond — interest-bearing, backed by confiscated Church property (the biens nationaux), and not yet the inflationary paper currency it would become. The transition from bond to banknote happened faster than the Assemblée intended. Within two years, over-issuance had gutted its value, and by 1796 the assignat system had collapsed entirely.

Gatteaux handled the die engraving while Lorthior contributed to the broader plate work — both were accomplished craftsmen working under considerable political pressure to produce something resistant to counterfeiting. The watermark was the primary security measure, relatively sophisticated for the period. Counterfeiting was nonetheless rampant, and the royalist presses in particular flooded France with fakes as a deliberate act of economic warfare.