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500 Francs Mandat Territorial
| Issuer | Trésorerie Nationale |
|---|---|
| Year | 1796 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Trésorerie Nationale Vu au Contrôle Promesse de mandat territorial Créé par la loi du 28. Ventôse An 4ème de la République Bon pour cinq cents Francs |
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| Protection description | Watermark text readable in the paper stock, visible on the reverse as a mirror-image show-through of the principal obverse inscriptions. |
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| Comments |
The Mandats Territoriaux were France's second attempt at a revolutionary paper currency, introduced in March 1796 to replace the catastrophically devalued assignats. The exchange rate set at the time — 30 livres in assignats for 1 franc in mandats — immediately signaled the scale of the preceding collapse. It didn't help. Within months, the mandats themselves had lost nearly all their face value in open trading, and by February 1797 the Directory formally demonetized the entire series.
The total lifespan of the mandat as legal tender was under a year. Notes of this denomination that survived did so largely because they were worthless too quickly to spend.