Watch List notes:

Haiti. Bernard Kock. Île à Vache. P-Unlisted. ND(1863), 1/2 Gourde. Uncirculated and Mounted on Cardstock. Private Issue.
The Île à Vache note issue is tangible evidence of enormous significance in American and Haitian history. Bernard Kock's vision was to resettle freed American Negroes in Île à Vache, Haiti, at the apogee of the American Civil War.

The project involved the pivotal participation of Abraham Lincoln himself. His Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery, took effect on the exact date of issuance of the Île à Vache notes, January 1, 1863. In the wake of the Proclamation, the Île à Vache settlement triggered a political and human drama that roiled Washington, DC, and Port-au-Prince.

An exploration of these crucial matters, which resonate deeply to this day, and of the labyrinthine chronicle of Bernard Kock's expansive plans for Île à Vache, is accessible in copious research sources online and in print.

The first known examples of Île à Vache notes came to light in the Ponterio Sale No. 112 on April 28, 2001. Their denominations were two and five Gourdes, or Haitian Dollars, illustrated in black & white as Lots 1382 and 1383. Both were impaired by glue stains and mount damage, yet each sold for $3,100, twenty years ago. In addition to these a proof twenty Gourde note appears in Neil Shafer's "Money of the People" collection, on June 15, 2014.

These three are the first documented Île à Vache notes in any auction, reference work, or major collection of Haitian or world paper money.

Two previously unknown fractional denominations of this issue surfaced from the 19th Century archives of The New York City Bar Association in 2014. These discovery notes of one-quarter and one-half Gourde are from that source. The key elements of all five denominations correlate in typography, text, printer, and composition, as well as in bearing the signature of Bernard Kock.

These two outstanding Haitian rarities are presented here for the first time since 2014 to the numismatic community.

Provenance: The New York City Bar Association, 19th Century Archives; The Nuevo Mundo Reference Collection of World Paper Money

Estimate: $3000.00- $5000.00