It’s Haiti v9 – What is a Haitian Dollar?

     The official currency of Haiti is the Haitian Gourde. It is exchanged at about 43 gourdes to the U.S. dollar. So when you see prices here in gourdes, you do a quick mental calculation to get it into dollars by dividing the price by 43 (or 40 to make it easier). We were at the market looking to buy some mangos. The women asked for 50 gourdes for a stack of six mangos. OK, that’s about $1.25 for the six, not bad. A lot better than the 110 gourdes we paid in the grocery store for just three apples. So I’m starting to figure it out. Then I walk into a store where the prices are listed in dollars. Not U.S. dollars, but Haitian dollars. So how do I pay in Haitian dollars? I can’t. There is no such currency. The Haitian dollar does not exist as a currency. It exists only as a manner of expressing a value. Now you need to multiply the Haitian dollars by five to convert the price to gourdes to pay in gourdes. Then you can divide by 43 to get the price in U.S. dollars. And most places will accept U.S. dollars, but not Haitian dollars. Because they don’t exist.
It’s Haiti.

Not a Haitian dollar but a 250 gourdes note (worth about $6 US)