5 Pesos José Martí

Cuba's gold coinage of 1915–16 was authorized under the Monetary Law of 1914, which established the republic's first nationally issued precious-metal currency — previously the island had circulated Spanish colonial coinage and U.S. dollars interchangeably. The timing was deliberate: a young republic asserting financial credibility during the early years of the Platt Amendment, when American intervention rights cast a long shadow over Cuban sovereignty. Production was contracted to the Philadelphia Mint.

Mintages across the two years were modest, and the series saw virtually no meaningful circulation — the pieces were largely hoarded or exported almost immediately upon issue.