100 Gourdes Christopher Columbus

This piece belongs to a series of gold commemoratives issued by Haiti in the early 1970s under the Duvalier government, a period when Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier had just assumed the presidency at nineteen following his father's death in 1971. The coins were produced largely for the export collector market rather than domestic circulation — Haiti's economy could not absorb gold coinage of any kind.

At 1.45 grams, the gold content is minimal, a function of the low face value relative to prevailing bullion prices in 1973.