2 Gourdes Independence

This note marks the centennial of Haitian independence — 1904 was the hundredth anniversary of the declaration at Gonaïves on January 1st, 1804, and the Banque Nationale d'Haïti issued commemorative currency specifically to mark the occasion. The American Bank Note Company had been the Haitian government's preferred security printer for decades by this point, producing both the engraved plates and the finished notes from their Pearl Street facilities in lower Manhattan.

Pick 121 is genuinely scarce. Centennial issues were not produced in large quantities, and Haiti's tumultuous early twentieth century — foreign receivership of customs revenue began just four years later — meant that banking records and note stocks from this period were poorly preserved.