1 Peso Alexander von Humboldt

Cuba issued a series of copper-nickel collector pesos throughout the 1980s targeting the international numismatic market rather than domestic circulation — hard currency the revolution badly needed. Humboldt is an unusual honoree for a Cuban coin, but not an arbitrary one: his 1800–1801 visit to the island produced detailed observations on the plantation economy that he later published as a direct indictment of Cuban slavery, making him a figure the Castro government could position as a pre-revolutionary critic of colonial exploitation.