10 Gourdes

The American Bank Note Company had a near-monopoly on Haitian currency production for much of the twentieth century, a relationship that outlasted multiple coups, the Duvalier dictatorship, and successive monetary reforms. This particular series was printed during the final years of Jean-Claude Duvalier's rule, before his flight into exile in February 1986 ended nearly three decades of family control over the country.

P#242 carries the ABNC imprint as part of a long-running contract that changed remarkably little in design vocabulary across decades of political upheaval — which is itself a telling detail about who held continuity of power in Haiti regardless of what happened at the top.