500 Colones Annexation of Partido de Nicoya

The 2024 issue commemorates the bicentennial of the Annexation of the Partido de Nicoya, the 1824 decision by which the district of Nicoya — then part of the newly independent province of Guatemala — voted to join Costa Rica rather than Nicaragua. The outcome was never militarily imposed; it was a formal cabildo vote, making it one of the few territorial acquisitions in Central American history achieved entirely through civic process.