10 Pesos Vasco da Gama

Cuba's commemorative silver program of the early 2000s leaned heavily on Iberian exploration themes, partly as a cultural gesture toward Spain during a period when bilateral trade and tourism investment from Madrid were politically significant to Havana. Da Gama's 1498 opening of the sea route to India — achieved by rounding the Cape of Good Hope — is the specific event this issue honors, distinct from Columbus's Atlantic crossing, which Cuba had already worked through in earlier commemorative runs.