25 Gourdes Independence

The 2004 25 Gourdes was issued to mark the bicentennial of Haitian independence — the 1804 declaration that made Haiti the first Black republic and the first nation born of a successful slave revolt. De La Rue handled the print run, as they had for much of the Banque de la République d'Haïti's modern output. Watermarking is the sole listed security feature, modest by the standards of the period, though Haiti's persistent inflation and dollarization pressures through the early 2000s made counterfeiting low-denomination gourdes a largely unattractive proposition.

Pick 273 is a commemorative issue, not a circulating replacement series, which affects survival rates — commemoratives often see both hoarding and rough handling in equal measure.