5 Livres Assignat

The Caisse de l'Extraordinaire was not a bank but a revolutionary fiscal instrument — established in 1789 to manage the proceeds from the forced sale of nationalized Church properties. Assignats began as interest-bearing bonds backed by that confiscated land, but by the time this 5 Livres note was issued, the connection to real assets was already eroding. The government had printed far more paper than land it could sell.

Gatteaux was a medal engraver by training, which shows in the precision of the typographic work. The watermark was among the few meaningful anti-counterfeiting measures available; forgery of small-denomination assignats was nonetheless rampant by 1792.