The Pinzón brothers — Martín Alonso and Vicente Yáñez — captained the Pinta and Niña respectively on Columbus's 1492 voyage, and their contribution to that expedition was consistently underplayed in Spanish historiography in favor of Columbus himself. Cuba's state mint issued this piece as part of a series commemorating the quincentenary of the 1492 landfall, a program that generated dozens of large-format silver issues throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s targeting the collector and investor market rather than circulation.
At 155.5 grams of .999 silver, these were produced for export revenue — hard currency Cuba badly needed during the economic freefall that followed Soviet subsidy withdrawals after 1989.
The Pinzón brothers — Martín Alonso and Vicente Yáñez — captained the Pinta and Niña respectively on Columbus's 1492 voyage, and their contribution to that expedition was consistently underplayed in Spanish historiography in favor of Columbus himself. Cuba's state mint issued this piece as part of a series commemorating the quincentenary of the 1492 landfall, a program that generated dozens of large-format silver issues throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s targeting the collector and investor market rather than circulation.
At 155.5 grams of .999 silver, these were produced for export revenue — hard currency Cuba badly needed during the economic freefall that followed Soviet subsidy withdrawals after 1989.