50 Colones Inter-American Human Rights Convention, Reverse Trial Strike

Trial strikes — pruebas — exist outside normal production channels and were typically produced to test die alignment, planchet behavior, or proposed compositions before a final minting decision was made. This piece, struck in gold-plated brass rather than the gold used for the circulating commemorative, almost certainly served that function for the 50 Colones issue commemorating the 1969 American Convention on Human Rights, signed in San José.

Costa Rica hosted the convention specifically because of its reputation as a stable democracy in a region that had little of either at the time.