The collection of the Ivanovo State Museum of Local History named after Dmitry Burylin contains a 50 sous assignat. There were several issues of the assignats, and the museum has those printed on May 23, 1793. The museum’s collection contains a total of 23 banknotes.

French assignats from the collection of Dmitry Gennadievich Burylin are dated 1792–1796. Paper assignats played their role in the history of the Great French Revolution — their excessive issue led to rapid depreciation.

Assignats appeared in 1790. Originally meant as government bonds, they had an annual interest rate of 5% and served as emergency payments to the treasury. Assignats were created in connection with the sale of national properties. One year after the first decree on assignats was signed, the interest on the bonds was abolished.

According to the decree of April 8, 1793, all allowances and salaries to the troops were to be paid only in assignats, just as other payments of the state institutions. Based on the decree, persons found guilty of offering or receiving a different price for goods or services depending on whether the payment was made in metallic money or assignats were subject to six years imprisonment. From the fall of 1793 to the winter of 1794, the Law of the General Maximum was in effect, setting maximum prices for 39 types of consumer goods. The value of paper money declined at a dizzying rate. In the fall of 1795, the value of assignats shrank to 0.87% of their face value. The law of December 23, 1795 (Nivôse 2, the year 4 in the French Republican Calendar) stated that the amount of assignats in circulation should not exceed 40 billion livres.

On February 19, 1796, all the devices used in the manufacturing of assignats were symbolically burned and destroyed in the Place Vendôme. The event was soon followed by the law of March 18, 1796, establishing a new kind of paper money — land warrants. However, they, like the assignats, were assigned a forced rate in all payments on a par with metallic money. The exchange rate was one land warrant for 30 assignats, which means that 100 livres in warrants were paid for 3000 livres in assignats. But this money began to depreciate quickly. In the fall of 1796, their value fell to 5%, and in February 1797 — to 1%.