Vel met 20 assignaten van vijftien sols, serie 698 uitgegeven 23 mei 1793 Possibly 1793 - 1795

Editor: Here we have “Vel met 20 assignaten van vijftien sols, serie 698 uitgegeven 23 mei 1793,” attributed to Nicolas Marie Gatteaux, likely dating from 1793 to 1795. It's a sheet of printed paper featuring engravings and typography. The layout feels incredibly repetitive and perhaps… unstable? What catches your eye? Curator: What I find interesting is the industrialization of value itself. Look at the sheer quantity, the serial nature of these assignats, printed en masse. This represents a fundamental shift in how value is created and controlled. How does the engraving technique, as opposed to, say, hand-drawn currency, influence our perception of these bills? Editor: I hadn't considered that! It makes it seem more... manufactured, less about intrinsic worth. The printing suggests easy reproduction, but doesn’t that inherently cheapen each individual note? Curator: Exactly! This challenges the preciousness usually associated with currency. It is also connected to revolutionary labour as the printing presses themselves require operators, paper makers and engravers. What's the relationship between that kind of labor and what this represents, which is monetary power in France at that time? Editor: So it's almost like the means of production themselves are undermining the concept of fixed value? The democratization of money through mass production leading to… well, inflation, instability. The means undermine the message. Curator: Precisely. We often forget to think about the process involved in this era. The shift in power relations by the production of the Assignats. It tells a story not only of economic upheaval but also of evolving artistic and industrial practices, questioning how material conditions shape abstract concepts like "value." Editor: That completely changes my perspective. It’s less about the image on the paper and more about the paper itself, and the act of printing these notes at a rapid pace. Thanks.