20 Pesos

The Banco Nacional de Cuba was established in 1948 as part of a broader push to end Cuba's long dependence on U.S. Federal Reserve notes, which had circulated alongside — and often instead of — domestic currency for decades. This series, printed by American Bank Note Company across the 1950s, represents the bank's first full generation of notes issued with genuine monetary independence from the dollar-peg arrangements that had constrained earlier Cuban banking.

The 1959 revolution complicated distribution of later-dated examples within this series. Notes bearing dates from 1960 were printed before Che Guevara took over as Banco Nacional president in November of that year — his signature would mark a sharp break in the series.