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1000 Livres
| Issuer | Intendance Générale des Colonies |
|---|---|
| Year | 1790 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Plain typeset note with an ornamental border of floral and foliate printer's devices enclosing the entire face. The heading ISLES DE FRANCE ET DE BOURBON is set in bold capitals at the top, with the serial number and denomination value 1000 liv. on the same register below. The body text authorizes payment of one thousand livres under the regulation on paper money dated 28 July 1790, with a handwritten payee line above three manuscript signatures attributed to the Contrôleur de la Marine, the Gouverneur-Général, and the Intendant-Général. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | ISLES DE FRANCE ET DE BOURBON N° 9624 1000 liv. BON pour la somme de MILLE LIVRES, payable aux termes du Règlement sur le Papier-monnoie, du 28 Juillet 1790, valeur reçue en Ordonnances. BON POUR Contrôleur de la Marine Gouverneur-Général Intendant-Général |
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| Comments |
The Intendance Générale des Colonies issued this note to address chronic specie shortages across French Caribbean territories — a problem that had plagued colonial administrators for over a century by 1790. Coin drained steadily out of the islands through trade imbalances, and metropolitan France rarely replenished it adequately.
The timing is significant. By 1790, the Revolution had already begun dismantling the institutional structures that gave these colonial emissions their authority. Notes issued that year existed in an administrative and political vacuum that only deepened as the decade progressed, making redemption increasingly theoretical.
Survivors at any grade are uncommon — colonial paper from this period suffered badly from humidity, insect damage, and the general disorder of the revolutionary years.