5 Pesos

The República de Costa Rica series of the 1860s predates any formal central banking structure in the country — these notes were issued directly under state authority during a period when Costa Rica's monetary system was still negotiating the competing pressures of coffee export revenues and chronic fiscal shortfalls. The 1865 date places this note squarely in the presidency of Jesús Jiménez Zamora's first term, a period of institutional consolidation after the Walker filibuster wars of the preceding decade had strained public finances severely.

P#103 is among the rarest of the pre-bank Costa Rican issues. Surviving examples are almost invariably remainder or unissued stock; genuinely circulated specimens are seldom encountered.