2 Gourdes

The Banque Nationale de la République d'Haïti relied on the American Bank Note Company for virtually its entire mid-century note production — a dependency rooted less in preference than in the near-total absence of domestic printing infrastructure. This 2 Gourdes belongs to a series that bridged Haiti's postwar stabilization period, when the gourde was still pegged at 5 to the U.S. dollar under an arrangement dating to the American occupation era and maintained long after U.S. forces withdrew in 1934.

The peg held through this issue's entire print run, which partly explains the denomination's modest practical role — 2 Gourdes equaled exactly 40 U.S. cents.