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5 Livres Tournois
| Issuer | Caisse Publique de l'Isle de la Réunion |
|---|---|
| Year | 1795 |
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| Reference(s) | P#7A |
| Obverse description | Plain cream paper note with typeset text throughout and a decorative border. Serial number in manuscript at upper left beneath the header ISLE DE LA REUNION, with the denomination stated as Billet de cinq livres and the full legal redemption text below. Two manuscript signatures appear at the foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | No. ISLE DE LA REUNION. Papier de confiance et d'échange. Billet de cinq livres. BON pour Cinq Livres Tournois, remboursables à volonté, en billets monnnoie deposés dans les caisses publiques, en exécution de l'arrêté de l'Assemblée coloniale, du 17 frimaire de l'an quatrième de la République, approuvé le 19 du même mois. Troisième émission |
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| Comments |
The Caisse Publique de l'Isle de la Réunion was a local emergency institution, not a formal central bank — its notes were stop-gap instruments issued during the disruption of regular French colonial finance caused by the Revolutionary Wars. By 1795, maritime commerce between France and its Indian Ocean territories had become dangerously unreliable, and specie had largely disappeared from local circulation. The Caisse filled the gap.
Local printing meant hand-press production with whatever materials were available on the island. Typographic consistency across the P#7A series is notoriously poor, and genuine examples can show significant variation in ink density and impression depth — not errors, just the reality of colonial workshop printing under supply constraints.