Issued the year after the Cuban Constitution of 1976 formally restructured the country as a socialist state, this piece was part of a broader commemorative program that positioned Soviet iconography within Cuban numismatics at the height of the two countries' political alignment. Cuba received somewhere between $6 and $10 million per day in Soviet subsidies during this period — the coins were, in one sense, minted on borrowed money.
Issued the year after the Cuban Constitution of 1976 formally restructured the country as a socialist state, this piece was part of a broader commemorative program that positioned Soviet iconography within Cuban numismatics at the height of the two countries' political alignment. Cuba received somewhere between $6 and $10 million per day in Soviet subsidies during this period — the coins were, in one sense, minted on borrowed money.