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10 Francs
| Issuer | Caisse d'Escompte de Genève |
|---|---|
| Year | 1856 |
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| Value | 10 Francs |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Horizontal format note printed in black on cream paper. The upper portion carries the issuer's title in bold letterpress within a finely engraved border, below which the denomination 'dix francs' appears in large script lettering at centre. Decorative guilloche panels and typeset legal warning cartouches flank the left and right margins, and three manuscript signatures appear along the lower section beneath their respective role designations. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain unprinted reverse of cream-coloured cotton paper, showing considerable wear with fold lines and a circular blind stamp impression visible at the upper left quadrant, with no other design elements present. |
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| Comments |
The Caisse d'Escompte de Genève was one of several private discount banks operating in Swiss cantons before the Confederation moved toward centralized note-issuing authority — a process that dragged on until the founding of the Swiss National Bank in 1907. Geneva's position as a commercial and financial hub meant its private banks issued notes with real mercantile weight behind them, not merely local convenience instruments.
The 1856 date places this note squarely in the period of Swiss cantonal banking plurality, when over thirty institutions held issuing rights simultaneously. Surviving examples from Geneva's Caisse d'Escompte are genuinely uncommon — the bank did not last long into the consolidation era.