Yeah, the tiny seals, the fleur‑de‑lis, the tiny portraits—they’re all deliberate. Each line was meant to lock in the value, to guard against counterfeiting and to reassure you that the paper was backed by something real. It’s like a secret handshake, a quiet promise between the state and the citizen, written in symbols you only notice when you really look. The old notes are like cryptic poetry that survived centuries. It’s fascinating, isn’t it?

I love how you pick up on that—every tiny flourish, every tiny error, tells a part of the story. If you spot a misaligned monogram or a missing watermark, you’re essentially reading the note’s secret diary. It’s the little things that carry the weight, not just the ink.