Cuba has two different official currencies in use. One for it's citizens and one for tourists. They both are based on the Peso, but the one for tourists is referred to as the convertible peso (informally called a chavito). Cuba distributes coin and paper currency, but I'm only covering coin currency in this trivia. Castro's regime needed more "hard" currency for its treasury, so in 1993 they invented the convertible peso as a way to obtain that "hard" currency. Convertible pesos would not be given to Cuban citizens but only to tourists who were allowed to use them only for gambling, hospitality accomodations, restaurants and the purchase of luxury goods inside Cuba.. They are not legal tender coins outside Cuba. At first the convertible pesos were exchanged one to one with the U.S. dollar, but as time passed, so many American dollars accumulated in the treasury, surcharges were added. Then, in retaliation to the U.S. sanctions, Cuban authorities stopped the U.S. dollar from being accepted in Cuban retail businesses. This was finalized on November 8, 2004, so the convertible peso became the only currency in circulation among Cuban businesses catering to the tourist. The official exchange rate is currently set at 1 convertible peso to $1.08 U.S. Dollar. However, Cuba has added a ten per cent tax making the cost per convertible peso almost$1.20 USD. However on the non-official "open market" you can 'trade' your convertible peso for about 24 regular pesos. The following picture is courtesy of about.com: Note: this is a listing of the coins currently in use in Cuba: Top 2 rows showing obverse and reverse of regular Cuban coin currency from left to right: One Centavos - 1/100 of a Peso Five Centavos - 5/100 of a Peso Ten Centavos - 10/100 of a Peso Twenty-five Centavos - 25/100 of a Peso Fifty Centavos - 50/100 of a Peso One Peso - 100/100, 1 full Peso Three Pesos - 300/100, 3 full Pesos Bottom 2 rows, (Convertible coin currency) from left to right: Five Centavos - 5/100 of a Peso Ten Centavos - 10/100 of a Peso Twenty-five Centavos - 25/100 of a Peso http://z.about.com/d/coins/1/0/1/3/-/-/Cuba_money_coins.jpg Hope you enjoyed this trivia Clinker
tsk tsk tsk .. what are we going toi do with Castro i dont think he did anything all the other Govt's of the world has done.. inventing a currecny to suck more money from its citizens.. shhh.. they might hear me
Clinker,quite a few nutcase regimes issued Foreign Exchange Certificates.The most well-known ones are the ones from China.Burma (also known as Myanmar) issues them.East Germany,Czechoslovakia,& Poland also had them as well. Cuba is the only country to issue both banknotes & coins for use by tourists,apart from North Korea. Aidan.
Thanks Clinker, that's some interesting info. Now, just gotta save up for that trip to Cuba, and make sure I 't use Canadian and not the US passport when I do go. I'll come back with a bagful of pesos if I do!
Has any of the U.S. members been to Cuba & tried to smuggle in some Cuban banknotes & coins to hopefully put into your collection? Are there any penalties for trying to do so? Aidan.
Aiden Aden, if there are some for sale, there were. I'll try to find out.... Maybe someone else knows... Clinker
