Assignat

“After appropriating to national purposes the land belonging to the church, the French National Assembly, instead of bringing it into the market at a time of insecurity, when its value was depreciated, issued bonds on the security of it, which were called assignats, as representing land assigned to the holder. This paper money consisted chiefly of notes for 100 francs each, though many of them were for sums as low as ten or five francs, and even lower; and the first issue amounted to 400 million francs.” — Chambers’ Encyclopedia, 1875

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