5 Pesos 'B' Foreign Exchange Certificate

Cuba's Foreign Exchange Certificate system created a parallel currency that legally captured hard currency from tourists and Cubans receiving remittances, routing it away from the peso economy. The 'B' series, introduced in 1985, was specifically restricted to dollar-value transactions at dollar-priced stores — the so-called "diplotiendas" — and could not be used interchangeably with the 'A' series certificates that circulated among diplomats and foreign workers. The distinction mattered enormously on the street, where both series traded at sharp premiums on the black market despite identical face values.

Státní Tiskárna Cenin had printed Cuban currency since the revolutionary period, a natural arrangement given Cuba's alignment with the Eastern Bloc.