2 Reales Type V Counterstamp

Costa Rica lacked a functioning mint for most of the early independence period and relied on counterstamping foreign silver — primarily Guatemalan and Colombian macuquinas — to legitimize circulating coinage as official national currency. The Type V counterstamp, applied from 1845 onward, was the government's attempt to assert monetary control over a chaotic colonial and post-colonial silver supply that had never been properly rationalized.

The host coin beneath the stamp varies considerably, and cataloging the specific origin of the planchet is often as important as the counterstamp itself to serious collectors of this series.