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20 Colones Banco de Costa Rica
| Issuer | Banco de Costa Rica |
|---|---|
| Year | 1901 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio on multicolour guilloche underprint. Central vignette shows miners shoveling coal at a mine, with rail carts and pickaxes in the foreground. Black letterpress overprints carry the series letter and serial numbers, with the denomination and bank title inscribed above and below the central vignette. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 20 BANCO DE COSTA RICA 20 EL BANCO DE COSTA RICA PAGARA AL PORTADOR LA CANTIDAD DE 20 20 VEINTE COLONES Serie D En moneda de oro Acuñada EL presidente El director 20 20 Veinte 20 AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY, NEW YORK. |
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| Comments |
Banco de Costa Rica was a private commercial bank operating under government concession, not a central bank — Costa Rica did not establish a true central bank until 1950. Notes like this 20 Colones circulated alongside issues from competing concession banks, a patchwork monetary arrangement that persisted through the early republic's repeated fiscal crises.
The American Bank Note Company held the printing contract for most of the bank's series at this period, a relationship common across Latin American issuers who relied on ABNC's security printing infrastructure when no comparable domestic capability existed. The S-prefix in the Pick reference indicates this is catalogued within the specialized section — likely reflecting its private bank rather than government issue status.