1/2 Real Type I Countermark

In 1841–42, Costa Rica lacked the infrastructure to strike its own coinage at scale, so colonial-era Spanish and Spanish-American reales — already circulating widely — were simply countermarked and reissued as national currency. The Type I punch, applied at San José, was the new republic's first assertion of monetary authority over coins it neither designed nor minted.

Host coins vary considerably, and the countermark is frequently found on heavily worn planchets. The underlying coin's origin can sometimes be traced to mints as far as Lima or Potosí.