Name/Title
Lottery bond fraction (centésima), Plan de Bonos del Instituto Nacional de Ahorro y Vivienda, Sorteo No. 460, Havana, 20 January 1968Entry/Object ID
2025.11.72Description
Small horizontal rectangle of thin buff paper, letterpress-printed in black on both faces, within a ruled border with a foliate ornamental band top and bottom.
Obverse. At left, a pictorial vignette: a bare-chested figure in a broad-brimmed hat, seen from behind and cutting cane with a machete raised against a dense wall of cane; behind at left, a sugar mill with chimneys and smoke, a cane-hauling train and cut cane in the foreground; a large sun disc rises behind the cutter at center. The vignette is signed in the lower right of the image field: J. PEDROSO.
At upper left, No 8968 with the letter C. Across the top center, VALOR NOMINAL 20¢ over PRECIO AL PUBLICO 25¢, then REPUBLICA DE CUBA and INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE AHORRO Y VIVIENDA. In a ruled panel at center right, the bond number 11396 in very large bold figures, with UNO UNO TRES NUEVE SEIS spelled out beneath it. At right, stacked panels: 32 with a superscript A, an overprinted TREINTA Y DOS, and 460. Lower center: SORTEO No. 460 / ENERO 20, 1968.
Reverse. Two text columns within a ruled border, with a vertical panel at right reading SORTEO No. 460 / ENERO 20 DE 1968. Left column: terms of the plan. Right column: the draw's composition and prize schedule, with the Director General's printed signature beneath PARA LOS PLANES ECONOMICOS DEL GOBIERNO REVOLUCIONARIO.
⚠️ A perforated cancellation runs across the left column, punched as dotted characters. ⚠️Context
This object is the Cuban revolution's attempt to convert gambling into saving, and it is dated to the institution's final months.
On 16 February 1959 Fidel Castro announced the suppression of the Renta de la Lotería Nacional and the creation in its place of the Instituto Nacional de Ahorro y Vivienda, to be headed by Pastorita Núñez; on 17 February the Council of Ministers approved the reorganizing law, and the institute was founded on 18 February 1959. The idea had originated in the Sierra Maestra in 1958: to transform the corrupt lottery into an instrument for financing affordable housing, to turn gambling into the virtue of saving, on the understanding that a bad habit could not be abolished by decree but only by attacking its causes and by systematic education. On taking office Núñez said she came to put the preaching of honesty into effect, to convert vice into virtue.
The mechanism is printed on this ticket. Lottery tickets became bonos that did not lose their value even when unprized, but constituted savings bonds earning interest. In its first year the INAV built the Reparto Camilo Cienfuegos in Havana del Este — 1,360 dwellings with a shopping center, sports fields, parks and green areas — and many houses at El Wajay. The buildings became known as edificios de Pastorita. INAV sponsored television programs on CMBF-TV including Ganando y Ahorrando and Pregúntele a Pastorita.
⚠️ The date matters. The last draw held in Cuba was on Saturday 16 March 1968. This ticket is for Sorteo No. 460 of 20 January 1968 — roughly eight weeks before the end. ⚠️ It also falls seven weeks before the Ofensiva Revolucionaria of 13 March 1968.Acquisition
Accession
2025.11Acquisition Method
PurchaseMade/Created
Bureau
INAVDate made
1/20/1968Time Period
1960sPlace of Origin
Country
CubaRegion
Caribbean, Central AmericaDesigner or Engraver Information
Designer or Engraver
Eladio RibadullaRole
DesignerNotes
Illustration by J. Pedroso.
President 1959–1962: Pastorita Núñez — Pastora Núñez González, born 27 April 1921 in Los Pocitos, Marianao; Movimiento 26 de Julio, founder of the Frente Cívico de Mujeres Martianas, joined the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra in 1958 under the nom de guerre Agustina, reaching first lieutenant; retired 1975; Heroína Nacional del Trabajo in 2000; died 26 December 2010
⚠️ Núñez had left the INAV presidency six years before this ticket was printed.Banknote Details
Issuing Authority
INAVObverse
Transcription
No 8968 C; VALOR NOMINAL 20¢ — nominal value 20 cents; PRECIO AL PUBLICO 25¢ — price to the public 25 cents; REPUBLICA DE CUBA; INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE AHORRO Y VIVIENDA — National Institute of Savings and Housing; 11396 / UNO UNO TRES NUEVE SEIS — the bond number, in figures and words; 32ᴬ; TREINTA Y DOS — thirty-two; 460; SORTEO No. 460 — draw no. 460; ENERO 20, 1968; artist's signature J. PEDROSO.Reverse
Description
PLAN DE BONOS DEL INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE AHORRO Y VIVIENDA — Bond Plan of the National Institute of Savings and Housing. CENTESIMA parte del bono de dicho número para el Sorteo No. 460, que se ha de celebrar en La Habana el día veinte de Enero de mil novecientos sesenta y ocho. — One hundredth part of the bond of the said number for Draw No. 460, to be held in Havana on the twentieth of January, nineteen hundred and sixty-eight. Los títulos se pagarán por la Lista Oficial autorizada por la Dirección General. No se pagarán los premios sin la presentación del Bono. El derecho al cobro de premios caduca a los noventa días. Los Bonos premiados podrán ser cobrados en la Pagaduría del INSTITUTO. — Titles will be paid according to the Official List authorized by the Directorate General. Prizes will not be paid without presentation of the Bond. The right to collect prizes expires after ninety days. Winning Bonds may be cashed at the Institute's Paying Office.
Consta este Sorteo de 30,000 BONOS divididos en centésimas a veinte centavos la fracción para el adquirente oficial — This Draw consists of 30,000 BONDS divided into hundredths at twenty cents the fraction for the official purchaser. Then: 30,000 bonos a $20 cada uno … $600,000; 5 premios de $10,000; 8 de $5,000; 10 de $1,000; 100 de $500; 1,000 de $100; totals 1,123 prizes, 250,000, $350,000.
PARA LOS PLANES ECONOMICOS DEL GOBIERNO REVOLUCIONARIO — For the economic plans of the Revolutionary Government. DIRECTOR GENERAL over a printed signature ⚠️ illegible, not transcribed. SORTEO No. 460 / ENERO 20 DE 1968.
⚠️ Perforated cancellation, characters not securely read.Composition
Material
PaperMaterial Notes
thin wood-pulp paper, letterpress in black. ⚠️ Almost certainly acidic newsprint-grade stockRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
PastoritaPerson or Organization
INAVRelated Places
Place
City
HavanaCountry
CubaRegion
Caribbean, Central AmericaResearch Notes
Notes
Researched 2026-09-17 in Spanish. INAV and Pastorita Núñez: EcuRed, Instituto Nacional de Ahorro y Viviendas, Lotería Nacional, Pastorita Núñez; Revista INVI (SciELO Chile), "Labor desarrollada por el Instituto Nacional de Ahorro y Vivienda (INAV) en La Habana (1959-1962)"; Redalyc, "Las casas de Pastorita en La Habana"; lahabana.gob.cu; Cubanet; Cuba Encuentro; Cuba Material (the collection's own blog), "Pastorita y la Lotería Nacional," citing René Dumont, Huracán sobre el azúcar.
⚠️ The SciELO and Redalyc articles are peer-reviewed architectural-history scholarship and are the strongest sources used in this session so far. EcuRed and lahabana.gob.cu are Cuban state sources — reliable on dates, interested on interpretation. Cubanet and Cuba Encuentro are oppositional outlets; they agree on the facts cited.
⚠️ The last-draw date of 16 March 1968 comes from EcuRed, citing Cantón Navarro and Duarte Hurtado, Cuba 42 años de Revolución. It is the single most important date in this record and rests on one source. Verify.Created By
María A. Cabrera ArúsCreate Date
September 18, 2026Updated By
María A. Cabrera ArúsUpdate Date
September 21, 2026
