Henri Christophe ruled the northern Kingdom of Haiti from 1811 until October 1820, when a stroke and a collapsing army left him isolated in his palace at Sans-Souci. He shot himself before royalist forces could reach him. This essai — a trial piece rather than a circulating issue — was struck in aluminium, which is anachronistic: commercial aluminium production did not exist in 1820, placing the actual striking almost certainly in the late 19th or 20th century as a numismatic restrike or fantasy piece bearing that date.
Henri Christophe ruled the northern Kingdom of Haiti from 1811 until October 1820, when a stroke and a collapsing army left him isolated in his palace at Sans-Souci. He shot himself before royalist forces could reach him. This essai — a trial piece rather than a circulating issue — was struck in aluminium, which is anachronistic: commercial aluminium production did not exist in 1820, placing the actual striking almost certainly in the late 19th or 20th century as a numismatic restrike or fantasy piece bearing that date.