20 Centavos 50th. Anniversary of the Republic

Cuba's 1952 commemorative program marked fifty years since the formal establishment of the republic in 1902 — but the political circumstances surrounding the issue were immediately complicated. Fulgencio Batista staged his coup on March 10, 1952, just months before the anniversary itself, effectively hijacking the commemorative series for a government that bore no democratic continuity with the founding it was celebrating.

The Philadelphia Mint struck these on contract, as it had produced most Cuban coinage for decades.