Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1000 Livres
| Issuer | Intendance Générale des Colonies |
|---|---|
| Year | 1790 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1000 Livres Tournois |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Typeset note with an ornamental floral border frame enclosing all text. The title 'ISLES DE FRANCE ET DE BOURBON,' appears at the top, with the serial number at upper left and denomination '1000 liv.' at upper right. The body text states the bon pour mille livres payable under the Règlement sur le Papier-monnoie of 28 July 1790, followed by a handwritten confirmation line reading 'BON POUR mille livres.' Three manuscript signatures appear at the bottom, attributed respectively to the Contrôleur de la Monnaie, the Gouverneur-Général, and the Intendant-Général. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain unprinted reverse with no design, lettering, or decorative elements, consistent with colonial paper-money issues of the late 18th century. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Intendance Générale des Colonies issued paper currency for the French Caribbean colonies — principally Saint-Domingue, Martinique, and Guadeloupe — under chronic coin shortages that had plagued the islands for most of the eighteenth century. By 1790, the timing was precarious: the French Revolution was already reshaping metropolitan authority, and colonial administrations were issuing paper against increasingly uncertain backing.
A 1,000 Livres denomination was a substantial figure in colonial circulation, beyond the reach of ordinary transactions. Notes at this level moved between merchants, planters, and administrators — not across market stalls. Saint-Domingue was already showing the early tremors of what would become the Haitian Revolution the following year.