50 Pesos Diego Velázquez

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded the first seven Spanish settlements in Cuba beginning in 1511, including Baracoa and Santiago de Cuba, effectively establishing the colonial infrastructure the island would operate under for centuries. This 1991 issue belongs to a Cuban series of large-format silver pieces produced during the Special Period — the severe economic contraction that followed the Soviet Union's collapse and the abrupt end of Soviet subsidies. Hard currency generation, not domestic circulation, was the point.