1 Real Type VII Countermark

Obverse description	Type VII countermark applied within a small circle of approximately 5 mm diameter, depicting a lion passant to the right within a beaded or dotted border. The surrounding legend reads HABILITADA POR EL GOBIERNO, indicating official government authorization. The countermark is struck onto the host coin's surface, with the host coin's underlying design partially visible in the field. The lion device is rendered in relief with fine detail consistent with official punch-die work of the mid-nineteenth century.
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Edge	Reeded
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Additional information	Costa Rica lacked a functioning mint for much of the mid-nineteenth century and relied heavily on countermarking foreign silver to legitimize it for domestic circulation. The Type VII punch — applied between 1849 and 1857 — was one of several successive countermark types used to authenticate and denominate incoming Spanish colonial and South American republican coinage, each type reflecting successive administrations struggling to impose monetary order on a coin supply they did not mint themselves. Host coins vary considerably, and identifying the origin of the underlying piece is often as numismatically interesting as the countermark itself.