The Cuban peso

Where the Cuban peso began

Spanish reales circulated in Cuba before 1857. Local paper came next. From 1857 the Banco Español de la Habana issued notes for the island in pesos, each worth eight reales, and decimal notes in centavos followed from 1869.

The Republic of Cuba had no currency of its own until 1915. A law of 29 October 1914 created the peso, and it began to circulate the next year at par with the US dollar. Charles E. Barber designed the first coins, and the United States Mint struck them in Philadelphia. The first Cuban paper money of the republic came as silver certificates in the 1930s, and the Banco Nacional de Cuba took over note printing in 1949.

How the revolution reshaped the money

Parity with the dollar held until 1959 and 1960. Then it broke. The peso then lost value after the United States imposed its embargo and suspended the sugar quota, and the new planned economy pegged it to the Soviet ruble at the old dollar rate.

On 7 August 1961 the Banco Nacional demonetised every earlier note. Replacements printed in Czechoslovakia took their place, and residents could exchange only small amounts, on 6 and 7 August. Foreign exchange became a state monopoly, and from 1979 Cubans were forbidden to hold US dollars. Visitors changed their money into coins of the tourism institute INTUR from 1981 to 1989 and into certificates of the Banco Nacional from 1985, and used them in shops closed to the national currency.

Why Cuba ran two pesos for a generation

The Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 cut off Cuba's supply of imports on easy terms, and in 1993 the government legalised the US dollar. The convertible peso, or CUC, arrived in 1994 at par with the dollar, and in 2004 it replaced the dollar as legal tender.

The economy split in two. State enterprises booked the dollar, the CUC and the Cuban peso at one to one, while the public changed a CUC for around 24 or 25 Cuban pesos; the sources differ on the figure. Salaries came in Cuban pesos, and much of what was imported sold in CUC. The coins could be told apart by metal and shape, the CUC's in nickel-plated steel with an octagon inside the rim, the national coins in aluminium or brass. CUC notes showed monuments and Cuban peso notes showed portraits.

How Day Zero unified them

The government announced in October 2013 that it would end the dual system, and it set the date on 10 December 2020. From 1 January 2021 a single official rate of 24 Cuban pesos to the dollar applied to state enterprises and private individuals alike, and CUCs were exchanged at 24 each.

Whether the peso then became Cuba's only legal tender depends on the source. Wikipedia says so. An LSE analysis written in February 2021 pointed to the stores opened in 2019 that sell in freely convertible currency and take bank cards only. The official rate soon lost touch with the informal market, where the dollar has changed hands at far more pesos, and on 18 December 2025 Cuba added a second official rate, a managed float set closer to the street.

Which notes and coins are in use

The coins in common use are the 5 and 20 centavos and the 1, 3 and 5 pesos. The 1 and 2 centavos still count as money but are rarely seen, and the 40 centavos was withdrawn around July 2004. The 5-peso coin of 2016 has a copper-nickel ring around a brass centre.

The 1961 notes lost their validity on 1 May 2002. Notes of 200, 500 and 1,000 pesos returned in 2015. The central bank added 2,000 and 5,000-peso notes in March 2026 and 10,000 and 20,000-peso notes on 16 September 2026, all four carrying Cuban women from the revolutionary era. It said the new values answer demand for cash in a period of inflation and that every earlier note stays valid.