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!
5 Livres
| Issuer | Caisse Patriotique de Lyon |
|---|---|
| Year | 1793 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Rectangular |
| 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 | Plain cream paper note with a simple typeset layout within a decorative ruled border. The central text reads "Bon pour CINQ Livres" beneath a manuscript serial number, with the clause "A échanger par somme de 400 livres contre Assignats" printed below. A small vignette of a cannon with wheels appears to the right, flanked by the vertical side legends "Siège de Lyon" and denomination indicators "5 L.)" and "(L. 5"; the note bears a handwritten signature in the lower left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | SUBVENTION CIVIQUE. 5 L.) (L. 5 Siège de Lyon. Nº 14028 Bon pour CINQ Livres A échanger par somme de 400 livres contre Assignats. 5 Liv. |
| 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 Caisse Patriotique de Lyon was one of dozens of provincial emergency-credit institutions that sprouted across France in the early 1790s to address a severe shortage of small-denomination assignats. These local caisse notes were technically interest-bearing obligations — not currency in the modern sense — but circulated as such out of necessity. Their legal status was always ambiguous, and the Revolutionary government never fully sanctioned them.
1793 was a particularly violent year for Lyon. The city rose against the Jacobin-controlled Convention in May, endured a two-month siege, and was subjected to systematic demolition afterward — the Convention even ordered it renamed "Ville-Affranchie." Notes issued that year may have been redeemed, suppressed, or simply abandoned mid-circulation as the city's institutions collapsed entirely.