In the early 1840s, Costa Rica lacked both the infrastructure and bullion supply to strike coinage from scratch, so the newly independent state resorted to countermarking Spanish colonial 8 reales — primarily Guatemalan issues — to assert monetary authority and validate their circulation. The Type I countermark on KM#8 uses a small, crude hand-punched device applied at San José under conditions that produced notoriously inconsistent strikes.
Forgeries of the countermark itself were a documented problem almost immediately, prompting Costa Rica to introduce the Type II countermark not long after.
In the early 1840s, Costa Rica lacked both the infrastructure and bullion supply to strike coinage from scratch, so the newly independent state resorted to countermarking Spanish colonial 8 reales — primarily Guatemalan issues — to assert monetary authority and validate their circulation. The Type I countermark on KM#8 uses a small, crude hand-punched device applied at San José under conditions that produced notoriously inconsistent strikes.
Forgeries of the countermark itself were a documented problem almost immediately, prompting Costa Rica to introduce the Type II countermark not long after.