Editing Assignat (section)

===June 1794===

By June 1794 the total number of assignats aggregated nearly 8 billion, of which only 2,464 million had returned to the treasury and been destroyed, after an emission of 1,205 million assignats on 19 June; the assignat was losing more and more value. In August, the [[Thermidorian Convention]] lifted the [[Maximum Price Act]] in the name of "economic freedom" and the assignats lost almost all value over the next year.  Toward the end of 1794 seven billion in assignats were in circulation. The assignat fell from 31% of its face value in August 1794 to 24% in November, 17% in February, and 8% in April 1795.<ref>The Thermidorian regime and the Directory 1794–1799, CUP (1972), p. 10.</ref> By the end of May, 1795, the circulation was increased to ten billion, at the end of July, to fourteen billion.<ref>FIAT MONEY INFLATION IN FRANCE, p. 49</ref> By 1796 the issues had reached 45.5 billion francs, excluding counterfeits, and the [[French Directory|Directoire]] issued [[Mandats territoriaux|Mandats]], a currency in the form of land warrants to replace the assignats, although these too quickly failed and were received back by the state at a steep discount.{{sfn|Ingram|1911}} [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]] opposed all forms of [[fiat currency]]. By the 1830s–1840s, the assignats and other papers issued during the Revolution had become [[Collectable|collectors' items]].