I lived in Cuba. The two currencies, at a consumer level, was less significant than it was made out to be. It was very, very easy for anyone to trade CP for CUC

I lived in Cuba. The two currencies, at a consumer level, was less significant than it was made out to be. It was very, very easy for anyone to trade CP for CUC at a rate of 24 to one. The real issue, for consumers, is that they were given almost no money. People would earn something like 480 CP per month. If you were doing well, you had access to another source of income (foreign remittance, black/grey market, tourists, etc) But for consumers who did have enough money, it was very easy to convert back and forth. Everyone had stocks of both CP and CUC on hand and used them as needed. Of course, people would complain "CP is worth nothing, this is a problem!", but effectively the real issue is that salaries were nothing. People wouldn't have been happier receiving 15 CUC per month. Where the real issues happened was at the level of state enterprises. I worked with an NGO working with agriculture. Capital investments were in CUC. Yet enterprises were forbidden from using CP earnings to finance CUC purchases. IIRC, enterprises had to balance their budgets in both currencies. This led to major inefficiencies. Note: 15 CUC is a pittance. The way people survived was through the other benefits of the state. Ration cards, subsidies, etc. I don't really know how that worked. People certainly were very poor, but not as poor as "15 CUC" sounds.