3 Convertibles Pesos 2006, Cuba
| in Krause book | Number: FX47 |
| Years of issue: | 18.12.2006 |
| Edition: | -- |
| Signatures: | Presidente del Banco: Francisco Soberon Valdes |
| Serie: | Convertibles Pesos |
| Specimen of: | 18.12.2006 |
| 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 
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.
Description
Watermark:
Security strip with a repeating microprinted "Patria o Muerte - Venceremos" passes to the right of center. Banknote protected by a watermark in the form of a portrait of José Martí and the number 3. Ideal composite image pentagonal star on both sides. At a certain angle, the letters BNC can be readable. Microtext glows under ultraviolet.
Avers:
The Che Guevara Mausoleum (Mausoleo Che Guevara) is a memorial in Santa Clara, Cuba. It houses the remains of executed Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara and twenty-nine of his fellow combatants killed in 1967 during Guevara's attempt to spur an armed uprising in Bolivia. The full area which contains a bronze 22-foot statue of Che is referred to as the Ernesto Guevara Sculptural Complex.
Guevara was buried with full military honors on 17 October 1997 after his exhumed remains were discovered in Bolivia and returned to Cuba. At the site, there is a museum dedicated to Guevara's life and an eternal flame lit by Fidel Castro in Che's memory.
Santa Clara was chosen as the location in remembrance of Guevara's troops taking the city on December 31, 1958, during the Battle of Santa Clara. The result of this final battle of the Cuban Revolution was Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fleeing into exile.
Nearby, in another part of the city, a Fulgencio Batista military supply train derailed by Guevara during the battle also remains in its original location.
On October 1997, Guevara's remains, and those of six comrades who died with him in Bolivia, arrived in a motorcade from Havana in small wooden caskets aboard trailers towed by green jeeps. As the remains were unloaded before a crowd of several hundred thousand people, a choir of schoolchildren sang Carlos Puebla's elegy to Guevara, "Hasta Siempre" (Until Forever) and then Fidel Castro declared the following:
"Why did they think that by killing him, he would cease to exist as a fighter? Today he is in every place, wherever there is a just cause to defend. His unerasable mark is now in history and his luminous gaze of a prophet has become a symbol for all the poor of this world".
His speech was followed by a coordinated 21 cannon-shot salute in both Santa Clara and Havana, while air raid sirens were set off across the length of the island.
In addition to those of Che Guevara the remains of six other guerrillas who lost their lives in the 1966-1967 Bolivian Insurgency were also entombed in the mausoleum on October 17, 1997.
Work on the complex began in 1982, and it was inaugurated upon completion on December 28, 1988 with Raúl Castro in attendance. The project was conceived by architects Jorge Cao Campos, Blanca Hernández and José Ramón Linares; along with sculptors and José de Lázaro Bencomo and José Delarra (its prime creator). Additionally 500,000 Santa Clara residents contributed more than 400,000 hours of volunteer work in the construction of the sculptural complex, who worked in unison with skilled artisans of the Eliseo Díaz Machado Foundry in Guanabacoa.
Many different aspects of Che's life are represented throughout the complex. For example, his time in Guatemala and at the United Nations is sculpted, while Che's farewell letter to Fidel is inscribed in full. The adjacent decorative wall depicts Che in the Sierra Maestra consulting with Fidel, beside Camilo Cienfuegos, and in the mountains on horseback. Another section shows Che as Minister of Industry performing his usual voluntary work. Lastly literacy tutors, children in schools, and young pioneers are depicted issuing the daily salute that all Cuban children recite each morning "We will be like Che."
The structural complex rests on a rolling hilltop overlooking the city of Santa Clara, and contains a large tiled plaza. At the end of the plaza are two large billboards with quotes by Fidel Castro declaring "Che - it was a star that put you here and made you of this people", and "We want everyone to be like Che." Carved in stone underneath the statue is the well known declaration by Guevara that "One thing I learned in the Guatemala of Arbenz was that if I would be a revolutionary doctor, or just a revolutionary, first there must be a revolution."
A number of elements of the memorial contain a symbolic meaning. For instance, the monument is orientated 190 degrees pointing Che's figure directly towards South America, reflecting his focus and outlook for one united Latin America. Additionally, the 22 foot bronze statue of Che has him carrying his gun rather than aiming, symbolizing that he is "continuing onward". The sling which Guevara wore during the battle, the result of an earlier broken arm, is also etched into the statue but he's not wearing the sling to symbolize "a part of his personality, a man rebelling even against himself." At the base of the memorial is Guevara's motto, "Hasta la Victoria Siempre" (Until the Eternal Victory).
From October 1997 to October 2009 over 3 million people visited the memorial site from over 100 countries.
In 2008, more than 247,700 Cubans and foreigners visited the sculptural complex. 
In top right corner are two Braille dots for visually impaired.
Denominations are in lower left and top right corners, also centered.
Revers:
Episode of the Battle of Santa-Clara.
The Battle of Santa Clara was a series of events in late December 1958 that led to the capture of the Cuban city of Santa Clara by revolutionaries under the command of Che Guevara. The battle was a decisive victory for the rebels fighting against the regime of General Fulgencio Batista: within 12 hours of the city's capture Batista fled Cuba and Fidel Castro's forces claimed overall victory. Most garrisons around the country quickly surrendered to the first guerrilla commander who showed up at their gate. In mid-afternoon, Che announced over Radio Rebelde that the last troops in Santa Clara had surrendered.
Denominations are in lower left and top right corners.
Comments:
The convertible peso (sometimes given as CUC$) (informally called a CUC or "chavito"), is one of two official currencies in Cuba, the other being the peso. It has been in limited use since 1994, when it was treated as equivalent to the U.S. dollar: its value was officially US$1.00. On 8 November 2004, the U.S. dollar ceased to be accepted in Cuban retail outlets leaving the convertible peso as the only currency in circulation in many Cuban businesses. Officially exchangeable only within the country, its value was increased to US$1.08 on 5 April 2008, and reverted to US$1.00 on 15 March 2011. The convertible peso is, by the pegged rate, the twelfth-highest-valued currency unit in the world and the highest valued "peso" unit.
On 22 October 2013 it was announced that the currency is to be scrapped by gradually unifying it with the lower-value Cuban peso.
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