2 Reales Type I Countermark

In 1841–1842, Costa Rica lacked the infrastructure to mint its own coinage at scale and instead applied a countermark to circulating Spanish colonial 2 reales pieces to officially validate them for domestic use. The KM# 19.1 countermark — a small crowned arms punch — was struck by hand, meaning placement and depth vary considerably from coin to coin. A poorly centered or weakly applied punch was enough to render a piece commercially suspect, and contemporary accounts note ongoing disputes over whether faintly marked coins were legally tender.