5 Gourdes - Faustin I Essai, large bust

Faustin Soulouque declared himself Emperor Faustin I in 1849, having originally been installed as president by Haitian elites who believed he was too dim to resist their manipulation. He proved them wrong, purging his opponents and ruling until a military coup deposed him in 1859. This essai — a trial piece never approved for circulation — dates to a period when his regime was actively projecting imperial legitimacy through coinage design. The "large bust" designation distinguishes it from a concurrent smaller-bust pattern, indicating the mint was still resolving the emperor's effigy before the project was abandoned entirely.