1/2 Escudo Type VII Counterstamp

Costa Rica's mid-century gold fractionals present a genuinely tangled minting history. The Type VII counterstamp designation reflects the government's repeated practice of authenticating and revalidating circulating coinage through official punching — a necessary response to the flood of underweight and debased foreign gold that moved through Central American trade routes during the 1840s and 1850s.

KM#80 encompasses nearly a decade of issue, and the host coins beneath the counterstamp vary considerably in origin.