REPUBLIC OF HAITI
REIGN OF PRESIDENT FOR LIFE FRANCOIS "PAPA DOC" DUVALIER (1957-1971)
COMMEMORATING ALEXANDRE PÉTION, FIRST PRESIDENT OF HAITI (1807-1818)
60 GOURDES GOLD PROOF COIN EVER ISSUED (2 YEAR ISSUE)
ONLY ISSUED IN 1969 PROOF SET
CERTIFIED BY NGC PROOF 67 ULTRA CAMEO
OBV: NATIONAL ARMS; DENOMINATION AND DATE BENEATH.
REV: 3/4 FACING UNIFORMED PORTRAIT BUST OF ALEXANDRE PÉTION FLANKED BY LIFE DATES.
ALEXANDRE SABÈS PÉTION (b. 1770, d. 1818) WAS BORN TO A HAITIAN MOTHER AND A WEALTHY FRENCH FATHER. HE WAS SENT TO BE EDUCATED AT THE MILITARY ACADEMY IN PARIS, FRANCE IN 1788. IN SAINT-DOMINGUE, THE FRENCH COLONY WHICH IS NOW HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, HE WAS CONSIDERED A GENS de COULEUR LIBRE (FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR), THE CASTE BETWEEN SLAVES AND WHITES. AFTER THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IN 1789, THE GENS de COULEUR REBELLED OVER POLITICAL AND VOTING RIGHTS. RACIAL AND CLASS TENSIONS HAD LONG BEEN HIGH AND THE WARS THAT FOLLOWED AGAINST THE PLANTERS ONLY MADE WORSE THE COMPETITION FOR POWER AND POLITICAL ALLIANCES. PETION OFTEN SUPPORTED THE MULATTOES, AND IN 1799 JOINED FELLOW MULATTOE LEADERS IN A REBELLION AGAINST TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE, LEADER OF THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION. HE AND THE OTHER REBEL LEADERS WERE EXILED TO FRANCE WHEN THE REBELLION FAILED, BUT PÉTION RETURNED WITH THE FRENCH FLEET UNDER GENERAL CHARLES LECLERC, WITH THE HOPE OF GAINING POWER IN THE COLONY. LATER THAT YEAR, PÉTION JOINED THE HAITIAN REBELS AFTER THE EXILE OF TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE BY THE FRENCH. THE REBELS TOOK PORT-au-PRINCE IN 1803, AND JEAN-JACQUES DESSALINES, WHO HAD BECOME LEADER OF THE REVOLUTION AFTER THE BETRAYAL AND CAPTURE OF LOUVERTURE, PROCLAIMED INDEPENDENCE IN 1804, NAMING THE NEW COUNTRY HIATI. DESSALINES THEN PROCLAIMED HIMSELF EMPEROR JACQUES I.
DESSALINES WAS ASSASSINATED IN 1806, AFTERWHICH, PÉTION CHAMPIONED THE IDEALS OF DEMOCRACY. HE WAS AT ODDS WITH HENRI CHRISTOPHE, ANOTHER LEADER OF THE REVOLUTION, WHO WANTED TO ESTABLISH AUTOCRATIC RULE. CHRISTOPHE WENT NORTH WITH HIS FOLLOWERS AND ESTABLISHED THE STATE OF HAITI, WHERAS PÉTION REMAINED IN THE SOUTH AND WAS ELECTED FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI. THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE MALATTOES OF THE SOUTH AND THE BLACK EX-SLAVES IN THE NORTH CONTINUED, DRAGGED ON FOR TEN YEARS UNTIL A TREATY OFFICIALLY SPLIT THE COUNTRY IN TWO. CHRISTOPHE DECLARED HIS STATE TO BE THE KINGDOM OF HAITI. PÉTION PUT ASIDE HIS BELIEFS IN DEMOCRACY, DECLARING HIMSELF PRESIDENT FOR LIFE OF THE REPUBLIC IN 1816. IN 1817, HE DISBANDED THE LEGISLATURE. HE EARNED THE NICKNAME PAPA BON-COUER (GOOD HEARTED FATHER) BY HIS SUPPORTERS BY SEIZING THE PLANTATIONS OF THE RICH AND REDISTRIBUTING THE LAND TO HIS SUPPORTERS AND THE PEASANTRY. HE OFTEN SUPPORTED THE RIGHTS OF THE OPPRESSED, BUT MOST OF THE POPULATION BECAME SUBSISTANCE FARMERS DUE TO THE CHANGE IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION, AND EXPORTS SEVERLY DECLINED. THE LACK OF REVENUE DEPRIVED THE FLEDGLING REPUBLIC OF NEEDED CAPITAL. PÉTION DIED OF YELLOW FEVER IN 1818, AND IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF HAITI.
THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION BEGAN IN 1791 AND ENDED IN 1804. KRAUSE CATALOGE CALLS MOST HAITIAN COINS ISSUED FROM 1967-1970 "10th ANIVERSARY OF THE REVOLUTION" ISSUES. THIS IS ERRONEOUS. "PAPA DOC" WAS ENTRENCHED IN 1957, THE ISSUES ARE MORE LIKLEY HAVING TO DO WITH THE START OF HIS REIGN. HE WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT BY POPULAR VOTE, AND THOUGH HIS RULE WAS A BLOODY ONE, THERE WAS NO REVOLUTION BRINGING HIM TO POWER.
KM # 74
CONTAINS 18.22 GRAMS OF .585 FINE GOLD (.3427 OZ AGW)
32 MM IN DIAMETER
"IC" MINTMARK
ONLY 475 MINTED!
