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50 Livres Assignat
| Issuer | Caisse de l'Extraordinaire, France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1790-1792 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Designer(s) | Designers: Nicolas-Marie Gatteaux, Pierre-Joseph Lorthior |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Assignat de la création du 19 Juin 1791. Domaines Nationaux Hypothéqués au remboursement des Assignats par le décret de l`Assemblée Nationale des 16 et 17 Avril 1790, sanctionné par Le Roi. Assignat de Cinquante liv. Il sera payé au Porteur la somme de cinquante livres à la Caisse de l`Extraordinaire, conformément aux décrets des 16 et 17 Avril, 29 Septembre 1790, et 19 Juin 1791. Cinquante 50₶. Cinquante Livres GATTEAUX (Translation: Assignat created 19th June 1791. National Domains Mortgaged for the reimbursement of Assignats by the decrees of the National Assembly of the 16th and 17th April 1790, sanctioned by the King. Assignat for Fifty livres. The bearer will be paid the sum of fifty livres at the Caisse de l`Extraordinaire in conformity with the decrees of the 16th and 17th April, 29th September 1790 and 19th June 1791.) |
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The Caisse de l'Extraordinaire was not a bank in any conventional sense — it was an emergency instrument of the Revolutionary government, created specifically to manage the proceeds from the forced sale of nationalized Church and émigré properties. The assignats it issued were, in their earliest form, essentially interest-bearing bonds secured against those confiscated lands. The 50 livres denomination sits in the middle range of the series, large enough to attract forgers but small enough to circulate widely, which became a serious problem by 1791.
Gatteaux was one of the foremost medallists of the period, and his involvement gives the engraving an unusual precision for a document produced under considerable political urgency. Lorthior handled the typographic and ornamental elements. The watermark was the primary anti-counterfeiting measure — and an inadequate one, as forgery of assignats, both domestic and foreign-sponsored, contributed materially to the hyperinflationary collapse that followed.