Costa Rica P280 POLYMER 1000 Colones 2019 UNC—Braulio Carrillo—Dry Forest 60629

A vivid polymer note celebrating Costa Rica's ecological identity — one of the world's most biodiverse nations — alongside a founding father who shaped the country's early institutions.

Front

• Colors: red/crimson dominant tint; green color-changing ink on coat of arms and country outline; clear security window strip at right
• Portrait: Braulio Carrillo Colina, head of state of State of Costa Rica (1838–1842), facing right
• Coat of arms: State of Costa Rica coat of arms in color-shifting ink
• Map outline: outline of Costa Rica in color-shifting ink at left — shifts from emerald green to turquoise to blue when tilted, with a bright floating ring that moves simultaneously
• Security window: transparent window strip at right; window patterns printed in color-shifting ink that changes from gold to purple-brown when tilted
• Text: ESTADO DE COSTA RICA / BRAULIO CARRILLO COLINA / 1 MIL COLONES; ACUERDO Nº 5, 20 de setiembre de 2019, SERIE C
• Signatures: Central Bank of Costa Rica officials (Series C, 2019)

Back

• Colors: red/crimson tint throughout; natural greens and earth tones in the forest vignette
• Central scene: dry forest (Bosque Seco) landscape featuring:
  • Guanacaste tree (Enterolobium cyclocarpum) — the national tree of Costa Rica
  • White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) — the national animal of Costa Rica
  • Costa Rican Pitahaya cactus flower (Hylocereus costaricensis)
• Text: BANCO CENTRAL DE COSTA RICA / BOSQUE SECO / 1000 COLONES; species names in Latin and Spanish

Other Characteristics

• Varieties: P280 (2019, Series C) — this note
• Catalog numbers: P280; Numista N#308516
• Composition: Polymer (Guardian®)
• Size: 125 × 67 mm
• Issuing entity: Central Bank of Costa Rica (Banco Central de Costa Rica)
• Printer: Orell Füssli, Zürich, Switzerland (1519–date)
• First circulation: October 15, 2021 (dated September 20, 2019 per issue agreement)
• Currency: Costa Rican Colón (1896–date)

The Man Who Unified Costa Rica

Braulio Carrillo Colina (1800–1845) was one of the most consequential — and polarizing — figures in Costa Rican history. As head of state from 1838 to 1842, he declared Costa Rica fully independent from the Federal Republic of Central America, established San José as the permanent capital, and created the country's first civil code. He ruled with an iron hand — critics called him a dictator — but his administrative reforms gave Costa Rica the institutional foundation that would eventually make it one of Latin America's most stable democracies. He was assassinated in 1845 in El Salvador after being overthrown.

The Dry Forest on the Back

The reverse celebrates Costa Rica's tropical dry forest — one of the most endangered ecosystems in the Americas, with less than 2% of its original extent remaining. The Guanacaste tree is Costa Rica's national tree, so iconic that the northwestern province is named after it. The white-tailed deer is the national animal. And the Pitahaya (Hylocereus costaricensis) is a native cactus whose vivid magenta fruit — a type of dragon fruit — is now exported worldwide. Three national symbols on one banknote back.

Polymer: The Future of Banknotes

This note is printed on Guardian® polymer substrate — the same technology pioneered by Australia in 1988 and now used by over 50 countries. Polymer notes last 2.5× longer than paper, are waterproof, and carry security features that are nearly impossible to counterfeit. The color-shifting map of Costa Rica on the front — cycling from emerald green to turquoise to blue with a floating ring effect — and the gold-to-purple window patterns are hallmarks of modern security printing. The printer, Orell Füssli of Zürich, has been printing since 1519 — making it one of the oldest continuously operating printing houses on Earth.

Own this note and you hold Costa Rica's ecological soul in your hands — a founding father, a vanishing forest, and three national symbols pressed into a crisp, waterproof polymer sheet.

About Costa Rica

• Origin of name: Spanish for "Rich Coast" — named by Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage in 1502, reportedly after seeing indigenous people wearing gold ornaments along the Caribbean coast
• Capital: San José (city pop. ~340,000; metro ~1.4 million)
  • Origin of name of San José: Named after Saint Joseph (San José in Spanish), patron saint of the city, by Spanish colonial settlers in the 18th century
• Population: ~5.2 million (UN 2024) — comparable to South Carolina or Colorado
• Area: 51,100 km² / 19,730 mi² — slightly smaller than West Virginia
• GDP per capita (PPP): ~$27,000 (IMF 2024) — among the highest in Central America
• Main exports: medical devices (#1 export), pineapples, bananas, coffee, dragon fruit, tourism
• Borders: Nicaragua (north), Panama (south), Pacific Ocean (west), Caribbean Sea (east)
• Official/spoken languages: Spanish (official); Limon Creole English spoken on the Caribbean coast
• Ethnicities: White/Mestizo (~84%), Afro-Costa Rican (~7%), Indigenous (~2.4%), Chinese (~1%)
• Memberships: United Nations (1945); Organization of American States (1948); SICA; WTO; free trade agreements with US (CAFTA-DR), EU, and China
• Sovereignty: Independent from Spain 15 September 1821; fully independent republic declared 1848; Second Republic established 1948 after civil war — notably abolished its military that same year

Costa Rica Unfiltered

• No military since 1948: Costa Rica abolished its armed forces after the 1948 civil war — one of only a handful of countries in the world with no standing army, and the first in Latin America to enshrine it in the constitution.
• 5% of Earth's biodiversity: Despite covering just 0.03% of Earth's surface, Costa Rica is home to an estimated 5% of all species on the planet — including over 900 species of birds.
• 99% renewable electricity: Costa Rica regularly runs on 99–100% renewable energy for months at a time, powered by hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, and solar sources.
• Pura Vida as a philosophy: The phrase Pura Vida ("pure life") is used as a greeting, farewell, and general expression of contentment — and Costa Rica consistently ranks among the happiest countries in the world on the Happy Planet Index.
• Medical devices, not bananas: Costa Rica's #1 export is now medical devices — it hosts major manufacturing plants for companies like Boston Scientific and Abbott, making it a surprising high-tech hub in Central America.