5 Gourdes

The Banque Nationale de la République d'Haïti contracted the American Bank Note Company extensively through the mid-twentieth century, and this 5 Gourdes belongs to a postwar series issued during a period of relative political stability under President Estimé and his successor Magloire. The Gourde had been pegged one-to-one with the US dollar since 1919 — a fixed rate maintained with unusual discipline for decades — which made notes of this denomination genuinely functional in everyday commerce rather than token instruments.

ABNC's intaglio work on Haitian issues from this period is generally fine, though the watermark security on the P#172 series is modest by contemporary standards.