50 Pesos Barcelona Olympic Stadium

Cuba's outsized Olympic commemorative program in the late 1980s and early 1990s was partly a hard-currency operation — these large-format silver issues were sold abroad to generate foreign exchange at a time when the Soviet subsidy was collapsing. The Barcelona Games of 1992 gave Havana a politically convenient subject: Spain, a fellow Spanish-speaking nation with its own complicated relationship with the United States.

Montjuïc Stadium, the venue this coin commemorates, was originally built for the 1929 International Exposition and renovated at enormous cost for 1992 — a project that nearly bankrupted the city before corporate sponsorship rescued it.