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20 Pesos
| Issuer | Casa de Moneda de Costa Rica |
|---|---|
| Year | 1873 |
| Type | Non-circulating coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | Central field bears the denomination 20 PESOS in two bold lines, enclosed within a symmetrical open laurel wreath tied at the base with a ribbon bow. A six-pointed star appears at the apex of the wreath above the denomination. The engraver's initials G.W. are inscribed below the wreath at the base of the field. Running along the periphery in a circular legend, the technical specifications PESO 32,258 LEI 0,900 are inscribed, indicating the coin's weight and fineness, all contained within a beaded border. |
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| Additional information |
Costa Rica's 20 Pesos gold coinage of the 1870s was struck at a moment of acute monetary ambiguity — the country was simultaneously operating under its own national coinage law while remaining entangled in the Central American peso system inherited from the colonial period. The Casa de Moneda in San José had only been functioning with genuine consistency for a matter of decades, and large gold issues like this one were tied directly to coffee export revenues, which by the 1870s dominated the national economy almost entirely.
KM#119 is among the heavier gold pieces the mint produced in the nineteenth century. Surviving examples in any grade are genuinely scarce; most known specimens trace to European collections, suggesting significant quantities left the country as trade coin rather than circulating domestically.