Catalog
20 Gourdes
| Issuer | Trésor Public d'Haïti |
|---|---|
| Year | 1827 |
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| Currency | First gourde (1813-1870) |
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| Obverse description | The National Coat of Arms of Haiti is centered in the upper portion of the note, flanked by the inscriptions "Liberté" and "Egalité" on either side. The denomination "VINGT GOURDES" is printed in bold letterpress below, followed by a French-language text stating that the note circulates throughout the Republic by authority of the law of 16 April 1827 and is guaranteed by the public treasury. Two signature lines appear at the bottom, designated "Le Membre Signataire" and "Le Contrôleur," with the vertical panel on the right side carrying the denomination numeral "20" and the word "GOURDES" in large type. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | REPUBLIQUE D'HAITI Liberté Egalité VINGT GOURDES. Le présent billet circulera dans la République pour la valeur de VINGT GOURDES, et le Trésor public en garantit la valeur au porteur; en vertu de la loi du 16 Avril 1827. Le Membre Signataire, Le Contrôleur |
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| Comments |
Haiti's Trésor Public issued paper money in the 1820s under circumstances that made conventional banking nearly impossible. The country had been forced in 1825 to agree to a 150-million-franc indemnity payable to France — compensation demanded for French colonial losses — and the resulting fiscal pressure on the young republic was immense. Domestic paper currency of this period was partly a response to chronic specie shortages as hard money drained outward to service that debt.
Pick 25 is among the earliest Haitian paper issues catalogued, and surviving examples are genuinely rare. The Trésor Public, not a central bank in any modern sense, functioned as a state treasury office under President Boyer's administration.