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100 Francs
| Issuer | Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise |
|---|---|
| Year | 1856 |
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| Reference(s) | P#S404 |
| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on cream paper, with the bank title in ornate Gothic script across the upper centre and a finely engraved vignette of the city of Neuchâtel above it. Two oval side vignettes framed in foliate guilloche borders depict rural genre scenes — a vintner with barrels at left and a figure at a doorway at right — while corner cartouches carry the denomination numerals and the word FRANCS. The central text states the payable-to-bearer obligation, the date 30 April 1856, and the place of issue, with three manuscript signatures below for the Contrôleur, the Caissier, and the Directeur, accompanied by an embossed circular bank seal. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | FRANCS 100 Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise IL SERA PAYÉ EN ESPÈCES, A VUE, AU PORTEUR, cent francs. Le Controleur, Neuchâtel, le 30 avril 1856 Le Caissier, Le Directeur, BANQUE CANTONALE NEUCHATELOISE 100 FRANCS A. BOVET A Genève |
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| Comments |
The Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise was itself a product of unusual political timing: Neuchâtel remained a Prussian principality until 1848, making its transition to a Swiss canton — and to genuinely Swiss cantonal banking — unusually abrupt. This note, issued just eight years after that constitutional shift, reflects the canton's need to establish credible financial infrastructure rapidly.
Auguste Bovet operated a modest Geneva engraving and printing house; his output for Swiss cantonal banks in this period was competent but small in volume, which directly limits surviving populations. The embossed seal was the primary anti-counterfeiting measure — modest by any standard, but typical of private Swiss cantonal issuers of the 1850s who lacked access to more sophisticated intaglio security printing.