500 Colones Series B

Costa Rica's 500 colón note had a turbulent run through the early 1980s, when the country suffered one of its worst economic crises in the twentieth century. Between 1980 and 1982, the colón lost roughly two-thirds of its value against the dollar, a collapse driven by falling coffee and banana export revenues, ballooning external debt, and a fixed exchange rate held past the point of credibility. Notes of this denomination, once substantial, became routine tender almost overnight.

Thomas De La Rue printed the Series B on a security watermark paper, consistent with their standard contract output for Central American issuers of the period. The series ran long enough — 1979 through 1985 — to span both the pre-crisis and post-devaluation periods, meaning surviving notes from different dates within the run represent meaningfully different economic moments despite being identical in design.