1 Gourde

The Banque Nationale d'Haïti was not a Haitian institution in any meaningful sense — it was chartered by the Société Générale de Crédit Industriel et Commercial of Paris in 1880, with French interests retaining effective control over note issuance and currency policy for decades. The 1889 gourde notes were printed in France, and the bank's concession gave its French directors authority that sat uncomfortably alongside Haitian national sovereignty throughout this period.

The gourde had been formally pegged to the French franc under the 1880 arrangement, though enforcement was inconsistent and exchange rates drifted in practice. Pick 85 is a scarce survivor from a series that saw heavy attrition in a tropical climate hostile to paper.