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500 Francs Mandat Territorial
| Issuer | Trésorerie Nationale |
|---|---|
| Year | 1796 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | 1796 |
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| Obverse description | Plain cream ground with a typeset and letterpress layout divided by a vertical rule into two panels. The left panel carries the issuing authority heading in cursive script, handwritten series and number notations, a manuscript control endorsement, and a manuscript signature. The right panel bears the large bold title 'de mandat territorial' flanked above by the cursive word 'Promesse' and below by the authorising law text and the value statement 'Bon pour cinq cents Francs', with a small intaglio allegorical vignette of a seated figure to the lower right. A wavy-rule border frames the entire note. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The Mandats Territoriaux were France's second attempt at a revolutionary paper currency, introduced in March 1796 to replace the catastrophically devalued assignats. The exchange rate set at the time — 30 livres in assignats for 1 franc in mandats — immediately signaled the scale of the preceding collapse. It didn't help. Within months, the mandats themselves had lost nearly all their face value in open trading, and by February 1797 the Directory formally demonetized the entire series.
The total lifespan of the mandat as legal tender was under a year. Notes of this denomination that survived did so largely because they were worthless too quickly to spend.