250 Livres Assignat

The 250 livres denomination placed this assignat firmly in the upper register of Revolutionary paper currency — large enough to be useful for significant commercial transactions, consequential enough to be a preferred target for the counterfeiters who flooded France from 1792 onward. British-backed forgery operations were extensive and deliberate, designed to destabilize the Revolutionary economy, and notes of this class drew particular attention.

Gatteaux was among the most accomplished die engravers working in Paris at the time, and his involvement reflects the genuine effort the Comité des finances made to produce notes difficult to replicate. The dry stamp and watermark were layered security measures — neither sufficient on its own given the scale of the forgery problem.

By late 1793, assignat inflation was accelerating sharply toward the collapse that would arrive in 1796.