Caribbean P-91 5 pesos 1958-60 Fine (heavily circulated)

Important: You receive a F (fine/fair) banknote of the design shown: Clearly circulated but intact. Moderate folds and handling, edges may show light wear, colors still visible, no major damage. Photos are indicative of the design only, not the state of the banknote. You may request images.

Machete Attack

The machete attack reaches back to the island’s 19th-century wars of independence from Spain. It depicts the moment when insurgent fighters—poorly armed and often outgunned—turned an everyday agricultural tool into a weapon of last resort. In the eastern countryside, where sugar dominated life and labor, the machete became both practical and symbolic: swift, terrifying at close range, and unmistakably local. These charges were used to break enemy lines, sow panic, and compensate for shortages of firearms.

In October 1867, Máximo Gómez taught the Cuban forces what would be their most lethal tactic: the machete charge. He was a former cavalry officer for the Spanish Army in the Dominican Republic. Forces were taught to combine use of firearms with machetes, for a double attack against the Spanish. When the Spaniards (following then-standard tactics) formed a square, they were vulnerable to rifle fire from infantry under cover, and pistol and carbine fire from charging cavalry. In the event, as with the Haitian Revolution, the European forces suffered the most fatalities due to yellow fever because the Spanish-born troops had no acquired immunity to this endemic tropical disease of the island.

The image is closely tied to the uprising led by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, also pictured on many notes from the island. In 1868 Céspedes freed his enslaved workers and called for rebellion in what became known as the Grito de Yara. As the conflict spread, the “machete charge” emerged as a defining tactic of the independence armies—an expression of improvisation, desperation, and resolve. By placing this scene on late-1950s currency, the state linked everyday economic life to a foundational myth: the idea that national freedom was forged not by imperial armies or polished weapons, but by ordinary people transforming the tools of labor into instruments of revolt.