50 Colones

The Banco Internacional de Costa Rica occupied an unusual institutional position: it functioned simultaneously as a commercial bank and as the country's de facto central bank, a dual role that generated ongoing friction with private banking interests throughout the 1920s. The Caja de Conversión designation indicates this note was issued under the conversion fund mechanism established to stabilize the colón against gold, a system Costa Rica adopted as the region's coffee export economy became increasingly sensitive to exchange rate volatility.

American Bank Note Company produced the series at their Manhattan facility, as they did for much of Central America during this period. The Banco Internacional itself was abolished in 1936 when the Banco Nacional de Costa Rica was created to consolidate the country's fragmented monetary institutions.