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10 Livres Assignat
| Issuer | Assemblée Nationale (France) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1791 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
| Protection description | Two oval watermark impressions incorporated into the paper, visible on the reverse as faint oval forms at the left and right margins. |
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| Comments |
Assignats began as interest-bearing bonds secured against confiscated Church and émigré property, then were converted into circulating currency by degrees — a political improvisation that the Assemblée Nationale never fully resolved. This 10 Livres denomination sits in the middle period of that experiment, after the interest-bearing function was abandoned but before the catastrophic overprinting of the mid-1790s had undermined public confidence entirely.
Gatteaux, a medallist by training, brought an engraver's discipline to the plate work. The watermark was the primary defense against forgery, though counterfeiting was rampant regardless — the British government famously sponsored mass production of fake assignats as a deliberate instrument of economic warfare against Revolutionary France.