Catalog
2 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco de Costa Rica |
|---|---|
| Year | 1895 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black ink on multicolour guilloche underprint; central vignette of a seated allegorical female figure with a pastoral landscape, flanked left by an equestrian warrior vignette and right by a numeral 2. Bank title across top, denomination DOS PESOS in bold lettering at centre, dated San José, 1° de Enero de 1895, with serial number and two manuscript signatures below. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | BANCO DE COSTA RICA |
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| Comments |
Banco de Costa Rica was a private commercial bank operating under government concession, not a central bank — Costa Rica wouldn't establish a true central bank until 1950. These peso-denominated notes were issued during the country's transitional monetary period before the colón fully displaced the peso, a conversion fixed at 2 pesos to 1 colón under the 1896 monetary reform. This note predates that shift by roughly a year.
American Bank Note Company held a near-monopoly on Latin American currency printing at this period, and the S-prefix in the Pick reference reflects its private bank status — technically an obligation of the institution rather than the state, though in practice the distinction mattered little to users.