10 Pesos Diego Velázquez

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded the first permanent Spanish settlements in Cuba beginning in 1511, establishing Baracoa and then six further villas including Havana and Santiago de Cuba. He governed the island until his death in 1524, and it was from Cuba that he organized — and then bitterly disputed — the expeditions that led to the conquest of Mexico under Cortés, a man Velázquez had initially commissioned and then tried twice to recall.

This piece belongs to Cuba's extended commemorative silver program of the late 1980s and early 1990s, issued largely for the export collector market during a period when hard currency was scarce on the island.