Early Coins From Haiti

Coin collecting so often leads to interesting history. I doubt if I would know much of Haiti otherwise. It was the second country in the hemisphere to gain independence, but the first to gain independence as a slave rebellion. It was relatively rich insofar as it produced sugar, which was a valuable cash crop in those days. Haiti supported other rebellions on the condition that any liberated countries abolish slavery.

Haiti became independent in 1804. Early coinage is confusing. It initially seems to have been continuance of French Livre coinage. I have never seen such coins and suspect they would be quite valuable. The Haiti Gourde became the currency in 1813.

The earlier silver coins of the Gourde system are interesting: 6, 12, 25, 50, and 100 centimes. 100 centimes weighed 10 grams etc. I have looked and can find little history of the minting of coins. No mention of a mint, or of purity (simply reported as being silver), or of method of manufacture. Numista reports the edge as being smooth. I surmise that the coins were made on the island by primitive means. The silver might be from foreign silver coins melted for the purpose. The manufacturing may have been familiar to a Roman, or certainly to the colonial Spanish mint workers.

They used the French dating system, An 1, An 2 etc, dating from the French revolution. They kept using that system after the French had abandoned it in 1815. The coin above is dated An 25, or 1828 by conventional dating.

One interesting thing about the coin pictured above is that it has serrations for maybe 70% of the edge. I have not seen that on other Haiti coins of the period.

Any further insights into this interesting coinage would be appreciated.