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1000 Francs - Caisse des comptes courants
| Issuer | Caisse des Comptes Courants |
|---|---|
| Year | 1798 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Designer(s) | Charles Percier |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse presents a plain, lightly aged paper surface with faint text and signature impressions visible through the sheet, consistent with early French paper currency of the Directoire period. The watermark inscription 'CAISSE DE COMPTES COURANTS' is incorporated into each of the four corners of the note, serving as the principal security device. No additional pictorial design elements are present on the reverse. |
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The Caisse des Comptes Courants was a short-lived Parisian private bank founded in 1796 by a consortium of merchants and financiers, operating for only a few years before being absorbed into the newly created Banque de France in 1800. This note belongs to that transitional moment when post-Revolutionary France was still improvising its banking infrastructure, having destroyed the old royal system without yet building a durable replacement.
Firmin Didot's involvement is the detail worth pausing on — he was simultaneously one of France's most important typographers, and his clean neoclassical letterforms give the note an austere authority that sets it apart from earlier assignat-era printing. Percier, who would soon become Napoleon's chief architect, contributed the design before his court career defined him.