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100 Colones
| Issuer | Banco Internacional de Costa Rica |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919-1932 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | P#178 |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Executed in dark blue-green, the reverse is dominated by a large interlocking guilloche rosette bearing the numeral 100 at its centre, flanked symmetrically by two subsidiary 100 counters set within elaborate lathe-work oval frames. The inscription BANCO INTERNACIONAL arches across the top with DE COSTA RICA completing the legend at the foot, and the printer's imprint AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY runs along the lower margin. The composition relies entirely on dense machine-turned geometric patterns as its primary anti-counterfeiting element. |
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| Protection type | Intaglio printing, Guilloche |
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| Comments |
The Banco Internacional de Costa Rica was not a central bank in the modern sense — it was a state-owned commercial institution that held the government account and acted as the de facto monetary authority before the Banco Central de Costa Rica was established in 1950. Notes of this series circulated across a period that included the severe commodity price collapse following World War One, which hit coffee-dependent Costa Rica hard and drove significant monetary instability through the early 1920s.
ABNC produced the plates in New York to their standard intaglio quality for Latin American clients of this period. The guilloche work is machine-generated and consistent with their output for multiple regional issuers simultaneously — Costa Rica was one of several Central American governments contracting the same New York security printers within the same decade.
High-denomination notes of this issuer in circulated grades frequently show stress folds along the vertical center, a known characteristic of notes folded for pocket or till storage over extended use.