20 Pesos 'B' Foreign Exchange Certificates

Cuba's Foreign Exchange Certificate system was designed to create a hard-currency parallel economy without formally acknowledging the peso's inconvertibility. The 'B' series — this note among them — was restricted to Cubans, as opposed to the 'A' series issued to foreign visitors. That distinction mattered enormously: 'B' holders could access dollar-equivalent goods at INTUR shops, but the certificates also exposed their users to official scrutiny, since possession implied access to remittances or other foreign income.

Státní Tiskárna Cenin in Prague printed for numerous socialist-bloc states throughout this period, and their work on Cuban paper is generally identifiable by its characteristic intaglio registration.