Nothing is really new out there

[Jeffrey Meffert]

I was looking at a keychain of my dad's which has a 1932 cuban peso in it and thinking that it somehow looked familiar. Then it struck me....

[Esteban_cool]

Actually, the star/rays combo is very usual in Latin American republican symbols. You can still see them in any country, and any official issue article emitted by their governments; lots of chilean coins minted during the 1930´s period had the very same star.
And I could understand there is a closer resemblance if that coin was minted after 1962.

BTW, can you show the reverse?

[Jeffrey Meffert]

A pleasing design may be created independantly by different artists but when I see things like this, I always wonder.
The obverse of the 1932 cuban coin is shown.
Now the North Korean order...no coincidence there.

[deValcourt]

The North Korean badge is not coincidence. They are/were so heavily influenced by the last great (size) communist state that the North Koreans could model themselves after. I don't collect these, but I'm sure - much like with Mongolia - there are many N. Korean awards that are very similar in some basic way to Soviet awards. The same would apply to Cuba (and most of the post WWII communist/socialist countries), especially as Esteban mentions above, in the early to mid-1960s when Castro was still more or less on a leash.

Besides, haven't you ever heard of "socialist emulation"?

Phillip

[Jeffrey Meffert]

Ah, but the cuban coin is from the 30's so one can argue some wartime soviet medal designer saw the caribean coins,