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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Clinker, post: 228982, member: 6229&quot;]<font face="Arial">Cuba has two different official currencies in use. One for it&#039;s citizens and one for tourists. They both are based on the <i>Peso</i>, but the one for tourists is referred to as the <b>convertible peso</b> (informally called a <b>chavito</b>). Cuba distributes coin and paper currency, but I&#039;m only covering coin currency in this trivia.</font></p><p><font face="Arial">&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Arial">Castro&#039;s regime needed more &quot;hard&quot; currency for its treasury, so in 1993 they invented the <b>convertible peso </b>as a way to obtain that &quot;hard&quot; currency. <b>Convertible pesos</b> 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. </font></p><p><font face="Arial">&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Arial">At first the <b>convertible pesos</b> 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 <b>convertible peso </b>became the only currency in circulation among Cuban businesses catering to the tourist. The official exchange rate is currently set at 1 <b>convertible peso </b>to $1.08 U.S. Dollar. However, Cuba has added a ten per cent tax making the cost per <b>convertible peso </b>almost$1.20 USD. However on the non-official &quot;open market&quot; you can &#039;trade&#039; your <b>convertible peso</b> for about 24 regular pesos.</font></p><p><font face="Arial">&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Arial">The following picture is courtesy of about.com:</font></p><p><font face="Arial">Note: this is a listing of the coins currently in use in Cuba:</font></p><p><font face="Arial">Top 2 rows showing obverse and reverse of regular Cuban coin currency from left to right:</font></p><p><font face="Arial"><b>One Centavos - </b>1/100 of a Peso </font></p><p><font face="Arial"><b>Five Centavos - </b>5/100 of a Peso </font></p><p><font face="Arial"><b>Ten Centavos - </b>10/100 of a Peso </font></p><p><font face="Arial"><b>Twenty-five Centavos - </b>25/100 of a Peso </font></p><p><font face="Arial"><b>Fifty Centavos - </b>50/100 of a Peso </font></p><p><font face="Arial"><b>One Peso - </b>100/100, 1 full Peso </font></p><p><font face="Arial"><b>Three Pesos - </b>300/100, 3 full Pesos </font></p><p><font face="Arial">Bottom 2 rows, (<b>Convertible coin currency</b>) from left to right:</font></p><p><font face="Arial"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Arial"><b>Five Centavos - </b>5/100 of a Peso </font></p><p><font face="Arial"><b>Ten Centavos - </b>10/100 of a Peso </font></p><p><font face="Arial"><b>Twenty-five Centavos - </b>25/100 of a Peso </font></p><p><font face="Arial"><a href="http://z.about.com/d/coins/1/0/1/3/-/-/Cuba_money_coins.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://z.about.com/d/coins/1/0/1/3/-/-/Cuba_money_coins.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://z.about.com/d/coins/1/0/1/3/-/-/Cuba_money_coins.jpg</a></font></p><p><font face="Arial">&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Arial">Hope you enjoyed this trivia</font></p><p><font face="Arial">&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Arial">Clinker</font></p><p><font face="Arial">&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Arial"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="2"> </font></font></font></p><p><font face="Arial"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="2"></font></font></font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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