Coins

Resellos, silver céntimos, coffee tokens and Banco Central notes:

each is collected by different people. The oldest are the resellos, Spanish colonial silver that the young republic stamped to make it legal money, first with Braulio Carrillo’s six-pointed star and later with a small ceiba tree and the legend HABILITADA EN COSTA RICA. Then come the silver céntimos of the early colón and the long run of Banco Central coins, among them the commemorative ₡50 pieces showing the country’s wildlife. Paper is a field of its own, from the notes of the issuing banks before the Banco Central took over in 1950 to the Central’s polymer series. Boletos de café, the tokens haciendas handed pickers for each measure of coffee delivered, are catalogued farm by farm. Old strongboxes and coin scales from the same house go under antiques, and Panini postales tucked into a coin album under trading cards.

Collecting by type, by date or by signature:

decide which before you spend. A type collector wants one good example of each design and can settle for the common date. A date collector needs every year in a series, and the scarce years decide what finishing it costs. Banco Central notes were printed in series, each carrying the signatures of the board president and the manager, and a complete run means every pairing. Condition counts for more on paper than on metal: one fold takes a note out of uncirculated. For an expensive piece, a slab from PCGS or NGC for coins, or PMG for notes, settles grade and authenticity before money changes hands.

Withdrawn notes and the face-value floor:

a note the Banco Central has taken out of circulation can no longer be spent, but it keeps its value and the banks still exchange it, so a folded ₡50,000 or an old cotton ₡2,000 is never worth less than what it says, and rarely much more unless it is uncirculated. The small notes of the 1970s to the 1990s are the opposite case: face value means nothing, crisp uncirculated ones change hands around ₡2,000 to ₡6,000 each, and circulated ones barely sell singly. At the far end, the rarest countermarks of the 1840s have passed several million colones at international auction, which is exactly why they get faked.

Fake resellos, pressed notes and creased polymer:

a countermark is the easiest thing to fake on a Costa Rican coin, because a forger needs only a genuine colonial host and a new punch. Check the dates first: the host coin has to be older than the stamp it carries. A real punch driven into old silver pushes metal aside and distorts the design around and behind the mark, so a stamp sitting on an undisturbed surface deserves a second opinion. The Museo de Numismática in San José displays genuine countermarked pieces, and an hour there is worth it before a large purchase. With paper, tilt the note against a window. One washed and pressed to hide its folds looks flat and limp, the old creases still faint in raking light. Tape, trimmed edges and sums written in ink all count against it. Polymer does not hold a fold the way cotton does, but a hard crease leaves a line in the ink that never comes out.

Listing a run of notes or a single countermarked cob:

photograph front and back in daylight on a plain dark surface, plus the edge of a coin. On a note, make the serial number and both signatures readable and give the series letter, and say whether it is circulated, folded, cleaned or pressed. Common coins and circulated notes sell better as one lot with a count, the few pieces with a premium one by one. A withdrawn note worth only its face does better at a bank counter than in a listing. Someone driving in from Guápiles or Turrialba for a single note will ask for the serial and the signatures before leaving home, because that is how they check it fills the gap in their run.