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50 Livres Tournois
| Issuer | Intendance Générale des Colonies |
|---|---|
| Year | 1788 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | ISLES DE FRANCE ET DE BOURBON. BILLET DE CINQUANTE LIVRES TOURNOIS, QUI AURA COURS AUX ISLES DE FRANCE ET DE BOURBON, CONFORMÉMENT À L'ÉDIT DU ROI, DU 10 JUIN 1788. CINQUANTE LIVRES. DE VAIVRE, INTENDANT GÉNÉRAL DES COLONIES. LE BRASSEUR, INTENDANT GÉNÉRAL DES FONDS DE LA MARINE & DES COLONIES. |
| Reverse description | Entirely blank, with no printing, vignettes, or ornamental elements; the reverse presents only the natural surface texture of the period hand-laid cream paper stock. |
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| Comments |
The Intendance Générale des Colonies issued this note for circulation in the French Caribbean colonies — almost certainly Saint-Domingue, Martinique, or Guadeloupe — where chronic coin shortages made paper instruments a practical necessity rather than a policy preference. Colonial administrators had been issuing paper money in the Antilles since the late seventeenth century, and by 1788 the system was well-entrenched if perennially distrusted by merchants who had seen earlier colonial bills depreciate badly.
De Vaivre served as Intendant of Saint-Domingue during this period, which makes his signature here more than administrative formality — it places this note squarely within the last years of French colonial order in that island, just before the revolution that would end it permanently in 1791.