40 Centavos Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán

Cienfuegos was killed in October 1959 when his aircraft disappeared over the sea shortly after the revolution's consolidation — officially ruled an accident, though speculation about foul play has never fully subsided. Cuba issued this coin three years later as part of a broader commemorative program honoring the revolution's martyrs, a category that conveniently excluded anyone still alive and potentially inconvenient.

The copper-nickel alloy chosen here was already becoming scarce in Cuban circulation by 1962, the same year the U.S. trade embargo tightened sharply following the Missile Crisis.