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20 Gourdes
| Issuer | Trésor Public d'Haïti |
|---|---|
| Year | 1827 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | First gourde (1813-1870) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | REPUBLIQUE D'HAITI Liberté Egalité VINGT GOURDES. Le présent billet circulera dans la République pour la valeur de VINGT GOURDES, et le Trésor public en garantit la valeur au porteur; en vertu de la loi du 16 Avril 1827. Le Membre Signataire, Le Contrôleur |
| Reverse description | The reverse is entirely plain, printed on unadorned paper with no vignette, text, or ornamental device of any kind. |
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| Comments |
Haiti's Trésor Public issued paper money in the 1820s under circumstances that made conventional banking nearly impossible. The country had been forced in 1825 to agree to a 150-million-franc indemnity payable to France — compensation demanded for French colonial losses — and the resulting fiscal pressure on the young republic was immense. Domestic paper currency of this period was partly a response to chronic specie shortages as hard money drained outward to service that debt.
Pick 25 is among the earliest Haitian paper issues catalogued, and surviving examples are genuinely rare. The Trésor Public, not a central bank in any modern sense, functioned as a state treasury office under President Boyer's administration.