100 Pesos 'C' Foreign Exchange Certificate-Narrow 'C'

Cuba's Foreign Exchange Certificate series was a dual-currency mechanism introduced to capture hard currency from tourists and diplomats while insulating the domestic peso from direct contact with foreign money. The FX certificates circulated in parallel with regular pesos but were accepted at dollar-parity in hard-currency shops — the "diplotiendas" — off-limits to ordinary Cubans. This created an openly two-tier monetary system that persisted until the convertible peso replaced it in 1994.

The narrow 'C' variant on this denomination is a print-run distinction, not a separate issue — the overprinted "C" series letter appears in two measurably different widths across the FX25 type, a detail that matters to specialists building complete type sets. Impresos de Seguridad, the Cuban state security printer, handled the full series domestically.