1 Peso El Morro - Santiago de Cuba

Cuba's hard-currency collector series of the 1980s was a calculated response to the island's chronic shortage of convertible foreign exchange, with coins like this issued specifically for sale to tourists and overseas collectors rather than domestic circulation. The peso face value was nominal; the real transaction was in dollars, deutschmarks, or whatever hard currency a visitor carried.

El Morro castle at Santiago de Cuba is a separate fortification from the better-known Castillo del Morro guarding Havana harbor — a distinction the catalog entry does not make, but which matters to the series collector.