50 Pesos First Cuban Railroad

Cuba's first railroad, inaugurated in November 1837, predated Spain's own domestic rail network — a fact that irritated Madrid considerably and reflected the sugar industry's desperate need to move cane from interior plantations to coastal ports. The line ran between Havana and Bejucal, financed largely by Creole planters rather than the colonial government.

This 1989 issue belongs to a sustained hard-currency program the Castro government ran through the 1980s, selling commemorative gold abroad to generate foreign exchange it couldn't obtain through trade.