5 Pesos Santiago de Cuba's Cathedral

Cuba's 1987 hard-currency commemorative program was designed almost entirely for export — these pieces circulated in diplomatic shops and foreign exchange networks, never in the hands of ordinary Cubans. The Santiago de Cuba cathedral, consecrated in 1528 and rebuilt repeatedly after pirate raids and earthquakes, was a calculated choice: prestigious enough to attract foreign collectors, politically neutral enough to avoid ideological complications for the Castro government.