Catalog
4 Escalins
| Issuer | Administration des Isles sous le Vent, Département du Port-de-Paix |
|---|---|
| Year | 1790-1799 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette composed of crossed swords, an open book, an olive branch, and a Phrygian cap rendered in a simple letterpress style. The denomination numeral "IIII" appears at lower left alongside the text "Quatre Escalins," with a handwritten manuscript signature across the lower centre. An oval official stamp is applied to the right side of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE. DEPARTEMENT DU PORT-DE-PAIX. ADMINISTRATION DES ISLES SOUS LE VENT. Quatre Escalins. (Translation: French Republic, Department of Port-de-Paix, Administration of the Leeward Islands, Four Escalins.) |
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The Administration des Isles sous le Vent was the colonial authority governing the northwestern department of Saint-Domingue, centered on Port-de-Paix. Notes issued under this authority fall squarely within the revolutionary and insurrectionary decade that would ultimately end French colonial rule entirely — the Haitian Revolution began in 1791, and by the late 1790s much of the island's administrative infrastructure was operating under extreme duress, with local emission of paper instruments filling gaps left by the collapse of normal commerce and metropolitan supply lines.
The escalin was a colonial unit of account derived from the Dutch schelling, still in common use in Saint-Domingue despite French monetary reforms. Its persistence here signals how disconnected the colony's day-to-day exchange had become from Paris by this point.