1000 Francs - type Germinal

The Germinal series takes its name from the republican calendar month — a deliberate cultural marker that survived well into the Napoleonic period even as Bonaparte dismantled most other revolutionary symbols. Andrieu was Napoleon's preferred medallist, responsible for the coinage portraits of the Consulate and Empire, and his involvement here reflects the government's intent to treat the banknote as a prestige object rather than a purely functional instrument. Percier, meanwhile, was co-architect of the Empire style itself, responsible with Fontaine for the interior of the Tuileries.

The Banque de France had been founded only in 1800, and public trust in paper currency remained fragile after the catastrophic assignat collapse of the 1790s. These notes circulated in an atmosphere of active suspicion.