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50 Francs
| Issuer | Trésorerie Nationale |
|---|---|
| Year | 1796 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Plain typeset document format on aged paper, with the issuer's name 'Trésorerie Nationale' printed in two lines at upper left within a ruled border. The body of the note carries a lengthy letterpress text in French referencing the Arrêté du Directoire exécutif du 21 Nivôse, An IV, specifying payment of fifty francs in valeur métallique from the proceeds of the Emprunt forcé or national forest sales. Two manuscript signatures appear at lower centre and lower right, with a handwritten serial number and manuscript date completing the document. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is plain, left unprinted, consistent with the documentary emission style of Directoire-era treasury rescriptions. |
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| Comments |
The Trésorerie Nationale was a short-lived institution, replacing the discredited Caisse de l'Extraordinaire as Revolutionary France lurched through successive monetary disasters. By 1796 the assignat system had already collapsed — inflation had rendered those notes essentially worthless — and the mandats territoriaux introduced earlier that year fared little better, failing within months. This 50 Francs note belongs to an administration desperately trying to restore confidence in paper currency at a moment when the French public had been burned twice in quick succession.
The Trésorerie Nationale series was itself superseded within a few years as the Consulate and then Empire consolidated financial authority under the Banque de France, chartered in 1800.