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Auction: 339 - The Numismatic Collector's Series Sale at NY INC, Grand Hyatt
Lot: 2075

Judaica. 1790, the first document granting Jews equality of citizenship in Europe. "Lettres Patentes du Roi" (Letters Patent of the King) document, printed on both sides at the "Imprimerie Royale" and dated in Paris in January 1790, a few months after the start of the French Revolution and the "Declaration of the Rights of Man". Document granting Sephardic Jews in France equal rights and giving them French citizenship by the National Assembly, endorsed "Sur un Décret de l'Assemblée Nationale, portant que les Juifs, connus en France sous le nom de Juifs Portugais, Espagnols & Avignonois, y jouiront des droits de Citoyen actif" (By decree of the National Assembly, the Jews, known in France under the name of Portuguese Jews, Spaniards and Avignonois, will enjoy the rights of active citizens). Louis XVI issued this letter patent as a result of political pressure and acts of violence against Jewish communities; the letter grants equal rights to Jews, but only those of Sephardic origin, who were mainly concentrated in the south of the country, with Ashkenazim not being considered. Very fine. A highly significant document which represents the first step to the Jewish Emancipation in France and Europe.

Sold for
$1,000