| Paper money from the period is interesting to collect. The most commonly
available are French assignats from the period 1790-1799. Napoleon did not
trust paper money and had vast personal reserves of gold and silver coin
in the cellars of his residences. On several occasions he personally paid
for the government's expenses from these reserves, particularly expenses
related to the Imperial Guard. Therefore, paper money from either the Consulate
or Empire is relatively rare, especially from France. |