100 Pesos

The República de Costa Rica's 1885 issues came during a period when the country had no central bank — the Banco Internacional de Costa Rica wasn't established until 1914. Notes of this era were authorized directly by the republic and printed abroad, a common arrangement for Central American governments that lacked domestic printing infrastructure capable of producing secure currency.

American Bank Note Company held a near-monopoly on prestige currency printing for Latin American clients through the latter half of the nineteenth century, and the technical quality of their intaglio work on this series is notably high relative to contemporaneous regional issues. Pick 124 is scarce in any grade; the 1880s Costa Rican republic notes had limited production runs and circulated hard in a cash-dependent economy.