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100 Pesos 2005, Cuba

in Krause book Number: 129
Years of issue: 2005
Edition: --
Signatures: Presidente del Banco: Francisco Soberon Valdes
Serie: 2004 Issue
Specimen of: 2004
Material: Cotton fiber
Size (mm): 150 х 70
Printer: Los Talleres de Grabado en Acero y Timbre del Estado de La Habana, STC-P

* All pictures marked magnify are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.

** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.

100 Pesos 2005

Description

Watermark:

watermark

Celia Sánchez Manduley.

Avers:

100 Pesos 2005

Text throughout the field of banknote: "Cuba - free territory of America, the homeland or death".

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes del CastilloThe engraving on banknote is made after this engraving of Carlos del Castillo.

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes del Castillo (April 18, 1819 - February 27, 1874) was a Cuban planter who freed his slaves and made the declaration of Cuban independence in 1868 which started the Ten Years War.

Céspedes was a landowner and lawyer in eastern Cuba, near Bayamo, who purchased La Demajagua, an estate with a sugar plantation, in 1844 after returning from Spain. On October 10, 1868, he made the "Grito de Yara" (Cry of Yara), declaring Cuban independence, which began the Ten Years War. That morning, after sounding the slave bell that indicated to his slaves it was time for work, they stood before him waiting for orders, and Céspedes announced they were all free men, and were invited to join him and his fellow conspirators in war against the Spanish government of Cuba. He is called "Padre de la Patria" (Father of the Country). In April 1869 he was chosen President of the Republic of Cuba in Arms.

The Ten Years War was the first serious attempt to achieve independence from Spain, and to free all slaves. The war was fought between two groups. In the East of Cuba the tobacco planters and farmers, joined by mulattoes and some slaves, fought against the West of Cuba, with its sugarcane plantations (which required many slaves) and the forces of the Spanish Governor-General. Hugh Thomas summarizes thus: The war was a conflict between criollos (creoles, born in Cuba) and peninsulares (recent immigrants from Spain). The Spanish forces and the peninsulares, backed by rich Spanish merchants, were at first on the defensive, but in the longer run their greater resources told.

Céspedes was deposed in 1873 in a leadership coup. Spanish troops killed him in February 1874 in a mountain refuge, as the new Cuban government would not let him go into exile and denied him an escort. The war ended in 1878 with the Pact of Zanjón. The pact did make concessions: liberation of all slaves and Chinese who had fought with the rebels, no action for political offences; but not freedom for all slaves, and no independence. The Grito de Yara had achieved something, though not enough; but it had lit a long-burning fuse. Lessons learned there were later put to good use in the Cuban War of Independence.

Braille points are in top right corner for visually impaired.

Denominations are in lower left and top right corners, also centered.

Revers:

100 Pesos 2005

monumentOn the left side is the monument to Jose Marti, standing right in front of Anti-Imperialist Platform.

One of the most eye-catching elements on the site is a life-sized statue of the Cuban icon José Martí, clutching a child in one protective arm while pointing vehemently in the opposite direction. The child represents Elián González, the sole survivor of a boat of Cuban refugees that capsized on its way to Miami in 1999, who was the center of a dramatic conflict between the two countries. Martí’s finger is pointed accusingly at the U.S. Interests Section Office located at the end of a linear plaza capped in several places by metal arches.

Anti-Imperialist PlatformCentered is the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Platform (Tribuna Antiimperialista José Martí) is located in the Plaza de la Dignidad, across the street from the United States Interests Section in Havana. Built in 1952, the U.S. Interests Section Office was originally the U.S. embassy. The area in front was known as Dignity Plaza. After Fidel Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista in the 1959 revolution, the building was used by the Swiss embassy, which represented U.S. interests in Cuba until the U.S. opened its own office in the 1970s. The statue of José Martí and Elián, as well as the metal structures, were erected hastily in 2000 while U.S. courts were reviewing Elián’s case. At the time, the area became a site for daily protests organized by the Cuban government. (Melissa García Lamarca and Geneva Guerin)

Denominations in numerals are in lower right and top left corners.

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