500 Colones Abolition of the Costa Rican Army

Costa Rica abolished its military on December 1, 1948, when President José Figueres Ferrer signed the new constitution and famously handed the keys of the Bellavista Barracks to the Minister of Education — a deliberate gesture converting military infrastructure to civilian use. The barracks became what is now the National Museum in San José. Seventy-five years on, that decision remains sufficiently unusual on the global stage that the Banco Central chose it as the subject for a circulating commemorative.