5 Céntimos

Costa Rica's wartime coinage of the early 1940s was directly shaped by Allied metal allocation priorities. Nickel was increasingly controlled for strategic use after U.S. entry into the war, and several Latin American mints shifted compositions or suspended issues entirely between 1942 and 1944. That this piece retains its copper-nickel alloy rather than switching to brass or zinc — as neighboring countries did — reflects Costa Rica's relatively stable supply agreements at that moment.