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20 Colones
| Issuer | Banco Internacional de Costa Rica |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919-1936 |
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| Reference(s) | P#176 |
| Obverse description | Dark blue intaglio note with the bank title INTERNACIONAL DE COSTA RICA arched across the top beneath BANCO. A central vignette depicts agricultural workers harvesting sugar cane in the field, rendered in fine engraved detail. The denomination 20 appears in ornate guilloche cartouches at left and in an oval underprint at right, with serial numbers and SÉRIE C printed in red; the lower margin bears the promise text PAGARÁ AL PORTADOR LA CANTIDAD DE VEINTE COLONES EN MONEDA ACUÑADA DE ORO, and the note is dated San José, 3 de julio de 1936. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in orange-brown, the reverse is dominated by an elaborate guilloche framework of interlocking lathe-work panels surrounding a central oval vignette of an allegorical female head in profile, laurel-wreathed, engraved in intaglio. The denomination numeral 20 appears in two flanking cartouches. The bank name is split between the top margin — BANCO INTERNACIONAL — and the bottom margin — DE COSTA RICA — framed by ornamental rosette borders. |
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| Comments |
The Banco Internacional de Costa Rica was not a central bank in the modern sense — it was a state-owned commercial institution established in 1914 to break the monopoly of private banks, particularly the Banco de Costa Rica, over note issuance. This 20 Colones issue sits across a seventeen-year span, which reflects the ABNC's typical practice of printing large batches with open date fields completed at time of issue rather than ordering new plates for each year.
American Bank Note Company produced the full range of Banco Internacional denominations from their New York workshops. The 20 Colones was among the higher-value notes in regular circulation during a period when Costa Rica was navigating post-WWI commodity price volatility driven heavily by coffee export revenues.