¢50.000 Note Will Begin Circulation on August 27

Employees who receive their end of the month salary may receive less bills than usual in the paycheck, but not because they will receive less pay, but because on August 27 the Banco Central de Costa Rica*(Central Bank) begins to circulate the new ¢50.000 notes.



The Central Bank will also introduce the new ¢5.000 and ¢10.000 notes to replace the existing ones that will drop out of circulation by December 31. In fact the "toucan" (¢5.000) and current ¢10.000 notes will lose their value on January 1, 2013 for payment.

The old bills can be exchanged for new at all financial institutions up to April 30, 2013 and the after only at the Banco Central.

With the introduction of the ¢50.000 note, it will complete the full family of notes in Costa Rica: ¢1.000, ¢2.000, ¢5.000, ¢10.000, ¢20.000 and ¢50.000.




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Carlos Melegatti, director of División de Servicios Financieros del BCCR, reminds the importance of applying the slogan "touch, look and turn" to avoid being a victim of counterfeit.

The Melegatti message is a head scratcher for the principal idea of the new notes is that their are counterfeit proof. Or at least virtually impossible to counterfeit.

The new ¢5.000 that replaces the "toucan" (called such for the image of a toucan on one side) is yellow in colour and will have an image of Alfredo Gonzalez Flores, the ¢10.000 is green and will depict Jose María Figueres Ferrer (the father of José María Figueres Olsen, a former president of Costa Rica and who is currently considering if he will run or not in the 2014 presidential elections.

The new ¢50.000 note is purple and depicts Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno. This is the first time Costa Rica will have a note of such a high denomination, a distinction that was held by the introduction of the ¢20.000 note.


* The Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) is not to be confused with the Banco de Costa Rica (BCR). The former is the country's central bank, the public institution that manages a state's currency, money supply, and interest rates.  Central banks also usually oversee the commercial banking system of their respective countries. Examples include the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve of the United States, the Central Bank of Canada.

The Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) is a state owned commercial bank.