50 Francs

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The Trésorerie Nationale series was itself superseded within a few years as the Consulate and then Empire consolidated financial authority under the Banque de France, chartered in 1800.