Catalog
5 Centavos INTUR
| Issuer | Instituto Nacional de Turismo (INTUR), Cuba |
|---|---|
| Year | 1981 |
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| Currency | INTUR (visitor`s coinage, 1981-1989) |
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| Obverse description | Central device depicts a highly detailed polymite land snail shell (Polymita picta), rendered in fine relief with its characteristic spiral coiling prominently displayed in the field. The circumferential legend INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE TURISMO runs along the upper rim, while the date 1981 and the country name CUBA appear at the lower periphery, each separated by raised bullet points. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Cuba's INTUR coinage was a parallel currency system introduced to extract hard currency from foreign tourists while keeping them financially isolated from the domestic peso economy. Visitors exchanged convertible currency for INTUR coins at hotel desks and state-run facilities; spending them outside sanctioned tourist venues was effectively impossible. The system gave the Cuban government a clean capture mechanism for dollars, deutschmarks, and pesetas without those currencies ever touching ordinary circulation.
The 1981 date places this issue in the early years of the program, before the later consolidation into the more familiar convertible peso system of the 1990s.