100 Pesos Bolivar and Marti, Piedfort

Piedfort coinage — struck at double the standard planchet thickness — has no circulation purpose; it exists purely for collectors and presentation sets. Cuba's use of the format in the early 1990s coincided with the onset of the "Special Period," the severe economic contraction that followed the Soviet Union's collapse and the abrupt end of Soviet subsidies that had propped up the Cuban economy for three decades. Havana's decision to mint prestige gold issues for hard currency export while the domestic population faced acute shortages was a quietly stark piece of economic policy.