Some Overlooked Copper Coins of Haiti .

 

The following coins seem to be very scarce but that may well be more apparent than real. All of them give the appearance of being nothing more than crude copies or counterfeits of fairly common French copper from around 1800 - and unless the collector knows that they are not, may well be dismissed as being precisely that. Interesting but nothing more.

It seems that they have been overlooked in the Krause catalogues of world coins - and that, too, may be understandable. But French authorities such as Zay (1892), Guilloteau (1942) and Mazard (1953) all included them so their authenticity seems solid.

Haiti , as a colony of France called "Saint-Domingue", issued these coins in the first decade of the Nineteenth century - probably within a year or so of 1805. At first, French royalists were in charge; then French republicans and finally Napoleon's officials. Haiti took French republicanism to heart, declaring herself independent of France itself in 1804 although it took several years of revolutionary and civil war before this was accomplished. The first black republic in the Americas , Haiti has had a turbulent history of dictators and civil war; at present, it is counted as being the poorest country in the hemisphere.

The first Santo Domingo issue at this time was actually French copper sols of Louis XVI countermarked with "S:D", the letters being in relief within a rectangular depression. But those are quite well known and outside this paper.

The first Haitian copy of the French Republican sol may be distinguished by several features. On the obverse, the legend reads REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE (instead of FRANÇOISE), the Dupré signature is missing and the year is rendered LANII instead of L'AN II. The reverse is always dated 1793, the date flanked by stars and with no mintmark; as well the "S" of "I.S(ol)" is reversed. This copy is almost always in "yellow copper", a direct imitation of the French piece which is in brassy "bell metal".

	(Left:) FRANCE . Sol, 1793-BB ( Strasbourg ) The type coin copied by the Haitians. Later in the year, the A.D. date was dropped from the French coins. Struck in brassy "bell metal".

(Bottom left:) The Haiti first-issue copy of the French sol, also in brassy metal. (Bottom right:) The Haiti second-issue copy of the same coin, usually in regular copper.

The second Haiti copy came out somewhat later and is normally in red copper. Like the first, the legend incorrectly reads FRANCAISE and the inscription on the tablet concerning the Rights of Man are mostly gibberish with only five lines of "text" instead of the proper six. The "revolutionary date" is given as "AN 8". This copy is always dated 1801 on the reverse, the date flanked by dots and, again, the "I.S" has the S reversed.

 

	FRANCE 1 Decime, L'An 8 (1799) A = Paris Mint. The French type coin copied by Haiti .

Obverse and reverse of the Haiti copy, ostensibly "LAN 8" (1799), "D" ( Lyon Mint)

The third and last Haitian copy is shown above, being almost a "blacksmith" of the regular French copper "Un Decime". There are several distinguishing characteristics: below the obverse bust, the Dupre signature is replaced by three stars and every N on the coin is reversed.

It might be well to be on the lookout for these three crude pieces, so frequently might they be in junk boxes or labelled "unknown counterfeit". But now you know.

Wayne Jacobs is a numismatic expert. Currently secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia, he is the award winning author of numerous articles. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.