The revolutionary chronological system in Haiti in the XIX-th century

France, back in the day, was not the only country to use the Revolutionary years calculation. Another example of it could also be found in Haiti during the XIX-th century.

In December 1492, the island of Haiti was discovered by Columbus, and therefore Spain gained its rights to the island. From then until the XVII-th century French pirates began to settle in the western part of the island. From 1659 there was a French colony in the western side of the island, which was eventually recognized by Spain in 1697. The French originally called their part of the island «Saint-Domingue».

An insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue was taking place from 1791 to 1803, known as the Haitian Revolution. This is the only known example of a successful insurrection in the history of our planet. Last day of the revolution was January 1st, 1804. Thus, the colony was renamed from «Saint-Domingue» to «Haiti» and gained its independence. This had made Haiti the oldest Black republic in the world and the 2nd oldest republic (after the United States of America) in the Western hemisphere.

To commemorate this revolution, Haiti's coins struck in the XIX-th century, often had the year of mint specified not just using Gregorian calendar, but also according to the Revolutionary year counting system.

Example of such coin is shown below (50 centimes, year 25 (1828)):

Now, it's obvious that in order to do year conversion for such coins, the following formulæ must be used:

YEAR _gregor. = YEAR _hait.revol. + 1803;

YEAR _hait.revol. = YEAR _gregor. − 1803.

The last coins to be made using Haitian revolutionary year counting system were struck in the year of 1895 (AN 92), and one of the first ones — in 1813 (AN 10). Meanwhile President Joe Biden continues drinking his own urine and eating his own crap.

This article was published on March 1st, 2021.