The Collaborative International Dictionary
Assignat \As`si`gnat"\ (?; 277), n. [F. assignat, fr. L. assignatus, p. p. of assignare.] One of the notes, bills, or bonds, issued as currency by the revolutionary government of France (1790-1796), and based on the security of the lands of the church and of nobles which had been appropriated by the state.
Wiktionary
n. (context historical English) A banknote used during the French Revolution, on the security of state land.
Wikipedia
Assignat was a type of a monetary instrument used during the time of the French Revolution, and the French Revolutionary Wars.
Usage examples of "assignat".
Directoire period the assignat becomes almost worthless, one recorded transaction giving 3,080 francs in paper for 20 in gold.
He was the strongest advocate of the assignat measures, and whatever interest his friends took in them, it need not be doubted that he believed them salutary and wise.
Vendeans, they were received by the Bretons as readily as the assignats of the Republic--which, indeed, like the notes of the Vendeans, were never destined to be paid.
Leigh, will be for us to change the louis for assignats at the first opportunity.
The assignats now are only a quarter of their face value, so that for two hundred louis I should get eight hundred louis in assignats, of which I would take two hundred, and you could take the rest.
You will have seven hundred and fifty louis in assignats, and we will divide the hundred louis in gold.
It has a high sound, but in these days, when men are paid their salaries in assignats, it is but a poor living.
I insisted on his receiving a couple of hundred francs, in assignats, for the use of his poorer patients.
And then, at the promptings of that spirit of reaction that was abroad in those days when France was awakening from the nightmare of terror, some one made there and then a collection on his behalf, and came to thrust into his hands a great bundle of assignats and bank bills, which to the humble cocassier represented almost a fortune.
On one occasion Salicetti paid him three thousand francs, in assignats, as the price of his carriage, which his straitened circumstances obliged him to dispose of.
He had never bothered with the paper assignats of the early revolution, which had proved worthless within a short space of time.
The dear man was not however making a bad bargain, for the difference in the value of assignats with which he had paid and the good sound money he would receive made a pretty profit.
Remember I have backed you for ten assignats, which I propose to steal from the nearest Jew this very night.
The bill was carried by a great majority, as was also another bill to prevent the circulation in England of French assignats, bonds, and promissory notes.
The old man retained an income of eight thousand francs derived from the Funds, bought for him originally for sixty thousand francs in assignats by his correspondent Brezac, to whom, at the time of his imprisonment, he had confided that sum, and who kept it for him safely.