1000 Francs - type 1837 comptoirs

The comptoirs d'escompte were provincial discount offices established by the Banque de France in 1836 to extend credit facilities beyond Paris — this note was the instrument through which that network operated at its highest denomination. Each note was individually signed by hand and numbered by staff at the issuing comptoir, making every surviving example geographically traceable in principle, though records are fragmentary.

Andrieu's engraving work here draws from the same neoclassical idiom he used on Napoleonic medallic coinage, giving the series a formal solidity unusual for provincial commercial paper of the period. At 12,175,000 notes printed across six years, the run was substantial — but given the denomination and era, actual survival rates are extremely low.