10 Pesos

The Banco Nacional de Costa Rica had a short and complicated existence — it was the country's first bank of issue, founded in 1858, and this note dates from that inaugural year. The American Bank Note Company's involvement reflects the near-universal practice among newly independent Latin American states of contracting New York or London engravers, since no domestic printing infrastructure capable of producing secure currency existed anywhere in Central America at the time.

The bank itself collapsed in 1867 after a series of liquidity crises tied to volatile coffee export revenues. Notes from the 1858 series survived in small numbers, most presumably never redeemed.