Costa Rica Currency

Costa Rica currency is the Colon. It was named after Christopher Columbus, known as Cristobal Colon in Spanish and was introduced as the official currency in 1896, replacing the money used in Costa Rica before known as: the peso. The correct plural pronunciation is colones, but English-speakers often refer to them as colons instead.

In Costa Rica, monetary units are very close to the country’s history and cultural facts, for example, the bills have each the picture of an important character throughout Costa Rica’s history: 1000 colones bill honors Tomas Soley, an important politician once minister of commerce in Costa Rica, the 5000 colones bill commemorates Costa Rica’s ecological resources by an impressive picture of a Tucan in its natural environment and the 10,000 colones bill portraits Emma Gamboa an important teacher of Costa Rica. Coins are also beautiful displays of culture.

Nowadays, the Costa Rica colon coins in circulation are 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 500 colones; before the government issued these new coins, there were centimos (less than a colon) in coins of 0.5, 0.25, 0.50, 1 and 2 colones, yet they had to be removed due to devaluation exchange rate in Costa Rica. Money is quite an art regarding bills, we have 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, and 10,000 colones bills.

Since Costa Rica has such a colorful side of the Spanish language, some of Costa Rica currency have slang nicknames every Tico uses to refer to them:

• Tejas is 100-colones • Cinco tejas for 500 colónes • Un Rojo is 1,000 colones • Un Tucan is 5,000 colones

Costa Rica Currency - The money used in Costa Rica can be either dollars in many commercial establishments like supermarkets, restaurants and stores and colones all over the country.

Do not exchange money in your home country before visiting Costa Rica. You will get a very bad exchange rate. Also, generally speaking, changing money at any airport in the world is a very bad idea. If you look at their notice boards you will see that the spread between the buy and the sell rate is often over 20%. This means you will get about 20% less than a fair rate and sometimes it is worse. You can use the ATM's at the airports (in the departure area) in Costa Rica and later any ATM you come across. Hotels and most major businesses will give you a fair exchange rate. Having said that it is still a good idea to know what you should be getting.

For colon exchange rates, go to The Central Bank of Costa Rica’s website: http://www.bccr.fi.cr/flat/bccr_flat.htm

Make sure you are aware of the current exchange rate if you decide to use dollars in your transactions while in Costa Rica, that way you can avoid getting a fake rate and lose your money. Although Costa Rica’s economy is pretty much fine, the low and middle classes are extremely affected. The cost of things in Costa Rica might be similar to the cost of things in the United States but the Ticos do make less money monthly than a North American would, yet they like fine things and don’t mind spending a little extra for quality or good service.

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