20 Pesos

Banco de Costa Rica was a private commercial bank operating under government concession, not a central bank — Costa Rica wouldn't establish a true central bank until 1950. The American Bank Note Company handled the bulk of Latin American private bank note production in this period, and their work for Costa Rica in the 1890s followed that same commercial model: plates contracted, printed in New York, shipped south for signature and issue.

The S-prefix in the Pick reference (S165) places this firmly in the Specialized catalogue for private and provincial issues, a reminder that formal national currency unification in Central America came late.