10 Colones

The Banco Mercantil de Costa Rica was a private commercial bank operating under Costa Rica's free banking period, when multiple institutions held concurrent note-issuing privileges. That arrangement ended when the government progressively consolidated issuance through the early twentieth century, eventually centralizing it entirely — making surviving private bank notes like this one terminal artifacts of a system that was already being wound down when this note was printed.

ABNC produced the plates in New York under their standard intaglio process. The S-prefix in the Pick reference designates this as a private issuer note, distinct from the national government series.