Catalog
| Issuer | Costa Rica |
|---|---|
| Year | 1846 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 2 Reales |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
| Obverse lettering | REPUB. DE CENT. DE AMER. 1846 (Translation: Central American Republic 1846) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Costa Rica lacked a functioning mint for most of the early republican period, relying instead on countermarked foreign silver — primarily Guatemalan and Mexican colonial milled coinage — to authenticate currency for domestic circulation. The Type V horse counterstamp was applied by official order to validate these pieces as legal tender, a practice that continued across several distinct counterstamp types as successive governments tried to assert control over a chaotic monetary supply.
KM#67 specifically identifies the host coin as a 2 Reales, but the counterstamp itself is what the Costa Rican state was issuing — the underlying coin's origin is almost incidental to the transaction.