Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
3 Livres Tournois
| Issuer | Isles de France et de Bourbon |
|---|---|
| Year | 1780 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 3 Livres Tournois |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed note on aged paper, enclosed within a simple ornamental typographic border of repeated floral and star devices. The text is set in black ink with the serial number and handwritten date at the upper left, followed by the issuing authority and denomination in graduated typefaces. A crowned royal cipher appears at the lower left, flanked by multiple manuscript signatures and a large cancellation cross drawn in ink across the entire face. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain paper reverse with handwritten notations in ink, including a number and a date reading '11 May 1785' at the upper portion, accompanied by a cursive manuscript inscription reading 'J.B. Melon' or similar. The lower portion retains faint impressions and staining from folding and circulation, with no printed design elements. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Isles de France et de Bourbon — Mauritius and Réunion under their French colonial names — operated a remarkably isolated monetary system in the late eighteenth century, and local paper instruments like this one were a practical response to the chronic shortage of specie on islands so distant from metropolitan supply chains. The 3 Livres denomination sits in the middle of a small series authorized to ease transactional friction in the colony's plantation economy.
Survivorship is poor. Colonial paper from this period suffered badly in tropical conditions, and administrative upheaval following the Revolutionary Wars further disrupted any systematic preservation.