CUBA's PESOS CONVERTIBLES

by Yigal Arkin
Posted 10 October 2006

 

In 1994 Castro passed a law that requires any tourist who enters Cuba to convert their foreign currency to the Peso Convertible. This law was not fully implemented and most tourists and locals used and preferred the U.S. Dollars - how ironic. In 1994 Cuba issued the Peso Convertible in face values of 1, 3, 5, 10,

20, 50 and 100-peso convertible banknotes, (there are also coins), and since they weren't widely used they were kept in vaults. They carry the name of the Banco National de Cuba.

Ten years later, as a result of actions taken by the Bush Administration, all tourist since November 2004 must change all foreign currency to Peso Convertible. All the banknotes that were kept from 1994 were put in circulation and soon after, new notes were printed with minor changes. The date was 2004

 

and they carry the name of the Central Bank of Cuba, and not the National bank of Cuba, and some minor color changes were made also.

There were no issues between those years 1994-2004. The new issues since then carry dates according to the year of printing. As far as I know there was no reprint of the 1 or 3 peso convertible to date, that is because there are coins of this denominations.