Cuba issued a series of commemorative pesos for the 1980 Moscow Olympics despite having no Cuban athletes compete — the United States-led boycott, joined by roughly 65 nations in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, had no effect on Cuba, which sent a full delegation and won several medals. The coins were produced for export revenue as much as commemoration, a standard hard-currency strategy for the Castro government throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Cuba issued a series of commemorative pesos for the 1980 Moscow Olympics despite having no Cuban athletes compete — the United States-led boycott, joined by roughly 65 nations in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, had no effect on Cuba, which sent a full delegation and won several medals. The coins were produced for export revenue as much as commemoration, a standard hard-currency strategy for the Castro government throughout the 1970s and 1980s.