10 Pesos Morro's Castle

The Empresa Cubana de Acuñaciones was established specifically to produce collector and export coinage for Cuba, generating hard currency during the prolonged economic crisis that followed the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 — a period Cubans call the Special Period. Domestic purchasing power was effectively zero for foreign goods, so these silver issues were never intended for internal circulation.

The unusual dimensions — 40.0 x 25.0 mm — indicate a rectangular or shaped flan rather than a round planchet, a format increasingly used by Cuban numismatic issues of the late 1990s to attract collector interest in overseas markets.