1 Peso 90th. Anniversary of Souvenir Peso

The Cuban "Souvenir Peso" program launched in the early 1980s as a hard-currency tourist instrument — visitors exchanged foreign money for these pieces at par, keeping dollars and deutschmarks out of the parallel economy. This 1987 issue marks ninety years since the original 1897 souvenir peso, itself struck in the final months of Spanish colonial rule as Cuban independence seemed increasingly inevitable. The 1897 original was produced in limited quantities specifically for American tourists and soldiers, not for circulation.