5 Colones Oro

Costa Rica's 1890s note issues were produced under contract with ABNC during a period when the country was cycling through competing private bank concessions — the Banco de la Unión, the Banco de Costa Rica, and various treasury obligations all overlapped in circulation simultaneously. A government-backed 5 Colones Oro denomination was partly a statement of convertibility confidence, pegging value explicitly to gold at a moment when that promise was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain across Central America.

The "Oro" designation matters. By the late 1890s it distinguished these notes from peso-denominated or devalued paper issues, though the gold standard backing was effectively suspended within a few years of this note's issue date.