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12 Gourdes Government of South Haiti
| Issuer | Government of South Haiti |
|---|---|
| Year | 1868 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 12 Gourdes |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The Haitian National Coat of Arms — a palm tree surmounted by a Phrygian cap, flanked by cannons and flags — is centrally placed as the principal vignette, with the inscription REPUBLIQUE D'HAITI on a ribbon below. The denomination DOUZE GOURDES appears in bold letterpress in the side panels and in the body text, which includes the circulation guarantee text referencing the arrêté du gouvernement du Sud d'Haïti dated 13 octobre 1868. The words Liberté and Égalité flank the coat of arms, with a manuscript treasurer's signature below. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is essentially unprinted, presenting a plain cream-coloured paper surface with a simple ruled rectangular border. Faint ink show-through from the obverse impression is visible, and what appears to be a handwritten signature is present near the lower left area. |
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| Comments |
The Government of South Haiti was a separatist administration established under Sylvain Salnave's opponents during the civil conflict of 1867–1869. This note belongs to the paper currency issued by the southern republican faction while Salnave held Port-au-Prince — a parallel monetary system born entirely out of political rupture, not economic planning.
The denomination itself is telling. Twelve gourdes is an odd unit, suggesting this series was calibrated against specific commodity prices or military pay scales rather than a tidy decimal structure. Salnave was overthrown and executed in January 1870, and the southern government's paper was almost certainly withdrawn and destroyed shortly after reunification, which accounts for the rarity of surviving examples across the entire P#54 series.