COMITÉ OLYMPIQUE HAITIEN

Haiti officially established a National Olympic Committee in 1914, which was recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1924. However, individual athletes had already participated since 1900.

The so-called Series Coubertin is probably a stamp series issued with three values in 1939. All of them show a picture of Pierre de Coubertin in the center, flanked by the flags of the Olympic movement and Haiti. The stamps were printed by the American Bank Note Company in New York in intaglio with lithographed multicolored parts. They were the first ever stamps to feature the Olympic rings in color. The proceeds of the surcharges were envisaged to help finance the construction of a stadium in the capital Port-au-Prince. The sales figures were 8680 for the lowest value (10+10 Cts in red) and 6897 and 6296 for the higher values (60+40 Cts in purple, 1.25 Gourde + 60 Cts in gray), only about 6% of the total circulation of about 350,000 (200,000 and 75,000, respectively). The low numbers were at least partly due to the outbreak of World War II . All remaining copies were burned. The design of the stamps was probably done by the Americans Charles Mack and engraver Will Ford (1895-1962). In 1960, the country issued more stamps with the portrait of de Coubertin in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Rome.