2 Reales Type III Counterstamp

Costa Rica's early monetary system depended heavily on counterstamped Spanish colonial and Central American Federation coinage, as the young republic lacked the infrastructure for independent minting. The Type III counterstamp — applied at San José — is distinguished from earlier types by specific punch characteristics that specialists have catalogued through die studies, though attributing individual strikes remains contentious given the crude application conditions.

By 1845, counterfeit counterstamps were already a documented problem, prompting successive modifications to the authenticating punch. That ongoing fraud cycle is precisely why multiple type classifications exist for what is nominally the same issuing authority.