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3 Livres Tournois
| Issuer | Isles de France et de Bourbon |
|---|---|
| Year | 1780 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed note on aged paper, enclosed within a simple ornamental typographic border of repeated floral and star devices. The text is set in black ink with the serial number and handwritten date at the upper left, followed by the issuing authority and denomination in graduated typefaces. A crowned royal cipher appears at the lower left, flanked by multiple manuscript signatures and a large cancellation cross drawn in ink across the entire face. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Isles de France & de Bourbon BON pour TROIS LIVRES Tournois valeur recu en Ordonnance. (Translation: Islands of France and Bourbon. Good for three Livres tournois, value received on order.) |
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| Comments |
The Isles de France et de Bourbon — Mauritius and Réunion under their French colonial names — operated a remarkably isolated monetary system in the late eighteenth century, and local paper instruments like this one were a practical response to the chronic shortage of specie on islands so distant from metropolitan supply chains. The 3 Livres denomination sits in the middle of a small series authorized to ease transactional friction in the colony's plantation economy.
Survivorship is poor. Colonial paper from this period suffered badly in tropical conditions, and administrative upheaval following the Revolutionary Wars further disrupted any systematic preservation.