25 Francs Mandat Territorial

The Mandats Territoriaux were launched in March 1796 as a forced replacement for the collapsing Assignats, theoretically backed by nationalized church and émigré lands — the same backing the Assignats had already exhausted. The exchange rate was fixed at 30 Assignats to 1 Mandat, but the public immediately distrusted them, and within weeks they were trading at a fraction of face value on the street. The entire experiment lasted barely eight months before the Directory formally demonetized the series in February 1797.

Hyperinflation had destroyed confidence so thoroughly that the Mandats depreciated faster than they could be printed. Surviving examples in any condition are common — the notes simply were not used.