40 Gourdes J.J. Dessalines

Issued to mark the 150th anniversary of Haitian independence, this piece belongs to a commemorative gold series authorized under François Duvalier, who exploited the 1964–1967 anniversary cycle extensively for hard-currency revenue. The coins were produced by the Waterbury Companies in Connecticut and marketed largely to foreign collectors rather than domestic circulation — Haiti had neither the economic base nor the numismatic market to absorb them internally.

Dessalines, the series' namesake, declared independence on January 1, 1804, and was assassinated just two years later in an ambush at Pont-Rouge.