Caisse de l’Extraordinaire Currency & Banknote Values

The Caisse de l’Extraordinaire series of France in the World Currency contains 57 distinct entries.

The États Généraux (Estates General) was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the commoners (Third Estate). The institution had not been called since 1614, but on 5 May 1789 King Louis XVI summoned the Estates General to address the financial crisis and societal reform.

The Estates General ended when the Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly) was formed on 17 June 1789 by the representatives of the Third Estate. It was also known as the Assemblée Nationale Constituante (National Constituent Assembly), although the shorter form was favored. This signaled the outbreak of the French Revolution. The National Assembly held the country’s authority after 1789’s Revolutionary turmoil even though Louis XVI sat on the throne until January 1793.

The National Assembly decrees of 19 and 21 December 1789 established the Caisse de l’Extraordinaire (Extraordinary Fund, EXT), and authorized the issuance of 400,000,000 livres’ worth of certificates of indebtedness with a simple annualized interest rate of 5 percent payable over three years. These were called assignats, because they were assigned, or secured, by the value of royal properties seized on 7 October 1789, and of Catholic church properties confiscated on 2 November 1789, collectively known as Domaines Nationaux (national domains).

The assignats were to be paid to the creditors of the state (including the Caisse d’Escompte), who could use them to purchase land or trade them with anyone who desired land. Once redeemed, the assignats were to be burned under the watchful eyes of appointed commissioners, and the whole issue would theoretically disappear once the national lands were auctioned off.