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This paper questions the topicality of the concern for continuity of political representation by looking at the sign of the presence of the State in writings: the face of the Marianne. This case provides an opportunity to describe, step by step, the way in which this graphic sign was stabilized, from 1997, in the administrative writings, the manner of its uses were policed and its multiplication was carefully controlled. It highlights a diffuse trial of figuration during which the ‘State’ has been constructed in the negotiated continuity of the face-sign: from State as government, to state as a public service provider, and State as a guarantor of individual users’ identity.