1 Peso

Banco de Costa Rica was a private commercial bank operating under concession, not a central bank — Costa Rica wouldn't establish a true central bank until 1950. The American Bank Note Company printed this series in New York, supplying several Central American issuers simultaneously during the 1890s, which occasionally leads collectors to conflate related designs across different national series.

The peso was already a currency under pressure in 1895. Costa Rica would shift definitively to the colón system — named for Columbus — following monetary reforms that effectively ended the peso's legal standing within a few years of this note's issue date.