500 Gourdes Economic Connections

Issued under the Duvalier regime as part of a broader series of gold commemoratives aimed squarely at foreign collectors and investors rather than domestic circulation. Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier had inherited the presidency in 1971 at age 19, and the government leaned heavily on numismatic exports as a hard currency mechanism throughout the 1970s. These coins were never intended to pass through Haitian hands.

KM#143 belongs to a FAO-affiliated thematic release promoting agricultural and economic development — a pointed irony given Haiti's condition at the time.