100 Francs

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.