Costa Rica has the Most Beautiful Money in the World!

The Costa Rica Colón! In 1502, when Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus) set foot on a little island just off the east coast of a new land, little did he know that the country that he ended up branding as "the Rich Coast" or "Costa Rica" would name their currency after him! And so they did! And it is beautiful. .

The colón was first introduced in 1896, replacing what was then, the Costa Rican peso. The colón is divided into 100 centimos. Since 1951, this currency has been produced solely by the Central Bank of Costa Rica. From 2012 until 2014, these new 'models' were introduced to the public. Everyone was so excited to see many of their native animals represented on these bills. The government created all of the denominations with a different length so that people who are blind or have serious visual restrictions can recognize their banknotes easily.

Tomás Povedano de Arcos was a gentleman who spent a lot of his life in Costa Rica. He was originally from Spain. He actually studied painting in Seville and was an illustrator and a painting instructor for much of his early life. He moved to Ecuador in 1892 and set up a school of fine arts, left 4 years later and move to Mexico to do the same. On his trip to Mexico, he first stopped in Costa Rica. The government invited him for the purpose of introducing him to the staff at their National School of Fine Arts. He liked what he saw and a few years later, he moved to Costa Rica.

For many years after that, he served as an illustrator for many government manuals, college books & local magazines. He also spent time painting portraits of dozens of government officials. His work was praise world wide and he became a legend in the painting world.

In the late 1030's, he created many templates that were saved and secured to be used at a later date. Many of these templates were images that are now used on our banknotes here today.

Today, the 1,000 colones bill, the 2-mil, 5-mil, 10-mil, 20-mil & 50-mil bills are graced with butterflies, sloths, monkeys, hummingbirds and many other native animals. They are beautiful.

However, here's the bad news! When one turns these beautiful bill over, there are no colorful animals. . only images of former presidents and politicians, a past founder of the Costa Rican National Insurance Institute, a highway builder and a Nicaragua-born scientist who pioneered research on using anti-venom to cure those who have been bitten by snakes! Figure that one out!

My choice would have been to simply print colorful images of toucans, scarlet macaws, anteaters. . heck, even spiders and snakes, on the OTHER SIDE of the bills as well!

If you are in Costa Rica and are not from the United States, then the best choice for acquiring the local currency is to simply use your debit or credit card at any local ATM. There is a fee, depending on your bank in your home country and on the specific ATM that you are using. When arriving at the Juan Santamaria International Airport, my last count was two ATM's at the baggage pickup area. Very easy to use and even though there are fees involved, it won't be too expensive.

The second best option for obtaining Costa Rican cash is to convert your local currency into U.S. dollars before you leave home. Some currencies are sometimes difficult and expensive to change into colones.

Most every business, hotel, museum, restaurant. . takes credit and debit cards here in Costa Rica, even some of the smaller sodas (diners). Many credit cards offer a no-fee situation for their clients. Check with your bank / institution.

If you insist on changing pounds, euros of other currencies to the Costa Rican colón, you will need to visit a walk-up teller at a bank. They may require you to do a double exchange, first into U.S. dollars and then into Colones, with commissions on each transaction. This can get expensive and time consuming! By the way, be sure to bring a HUGE BUCKET of PATIENCE when visiting Costa Rica. We'll go further into THIS subject at another writing!

Again, in my opinion, your best choice is simply to use the ATM machines at the airport when you arrive. And note that ATM's are located almost at every corner in San Jose and all of the other larger cities and towns. Even in the smaller towns, there is a bank or two that will have an ATM to use. Many grocery stores and money exchange locations have them available as well.

One last note. . be sure to contact your bank or credit card issuer and tell them what dates you will be visiting Costa Rica. Many institutions will deny use and approval if they don't know that you are there. That could get embarrassing if you and your family just enjoyed a $100.00 meal at a gourmet restaurant and then your credit card was denied! You'd be washing dishes for days to pay that one off!

You're invited to visit our websites at www.costaricagoodnewsreport.com & www.costaricaimmigrationandmovingexperts.com

Also, please enjoy our over 800 episodes of our "Costa Rica Pura Vida Lifestyle Podcast Series". We are found on all major podcast venues, including iHeartRADIO, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Radio FM, Anchor and many more. Here's our link: www.anchor.fm/costa-rica-pura-vida