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!
40 Sols Tournois - First Republic
| Issuer | Caisse Publique, Isle de Bourbon |
|---|---|
| Year | 1793 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Typeset letterpress note printed in black on cream paper stock, enclosed within a single-rule rectangular border. The heading ISLE DE BOURBON is set in large capitals at the top, followed by the italic subtitle Papier de confiance et d'échange, with the body text detailing the denomination and redemption terms in a mixed roman and italic typeface. Two manuscript signatures appear in the lower portion, with a handwritten serial number inscribed in the upper left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | ISLE DE BOURBON. Papier de confiance et d'échange. BON pour Quarante Sols Tournois, remboursables à volonté, en billets-monnoïe déposés dans es caisses publiques, en exécution de l'arrêté de l'Assemblée Coloniale, du 11 avril 1793 approuvé le 13 du même mois. (Translation: Bourbon Island. Trust and exchange paper. Good for forty Sols Tournois, redeemable at will, in banknotes deposited in the public fund, in execution of the decree of the Colonial Assembly, of April 11, 1793 approved on the 13th of the same month.) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| 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 Isle de Bourbon — present-day Réunion — was effectively cut off from metropolitan France by British naval dominance in the Indian Ocean during the Revolutionary period. The Caisse Publique issues of 1793 were a direct response to the resulting coin shortage; hard currency had dried up almost entirely on the island, and local authorities improvised emergency assignat-style notes to keep commerce moving.
The P#A3 is one of the earliest documented paper issues from any French colonial possession during the First Republic, which makes it genuinely rare in the philatelic and numismatic record — not because of low surviving numbers alone, but because colonial emergency issues from this period were rarely systematically catalogued at all.