50 Sous

The Caisse Patriotique de Lyon issued these small-denomination emergency notes during one of the most violent episodes of the Revolution. Lyon had declared against the Jacobin Convention in May 1793, and by October the city was under siege, largely destroyed, and officially renamed "Ville-Affranchie" — the liberated city — by a Convention determined to erase it. Any local financial instrument from that window is a survivor in a literal sense.

The blind emboss was the primary authentication device, a common choice for municipal and patriotic cashiers who lacked access to more sophisticated security printing. Caisse Patriotique notes generally circulated as fractional currency to address the acute shortage of coin, which had been hoarded or melted across France since 1789.