10 Pesos San Pedro De Alcántara

San Pedro de Alcántara was a Spanish Franciscan friar canonized in 1669, but Cuba's decision to feature him on a bullion-adjacent commemorative in 2000 reflects the island's long tradition of issuing hard-currency collector pieces primarily for the foreign exchange market rather than domestic circulation — a revenue strategy that accelerated sharply after the Soviet subsidy collapse of the early 1990s. These coins were sold internationally while Cubans themselves were legally barred from holding dollars.