New ₡5,000, ₡10,000 and ₡50,000 bills to circulate in August

Costa Rica’s Central Bank announced Tuesday that it will circulate three new banknotes of ₡5,000 ($10), ₡10,000 ($20) and ₡50,000 ($99) in August.

Once the new bills are out, the old ones will need to be exchanged in banks. Beginning in December, only the Central Bank will exchange them.

All new banknotes display images of former presidents: The ₡5,000 note is yellow and has the image of Alfredo González Flores, the green ₡10,000 bill shows three-time President José Figueres Ferrer and the ₡50,000 – purple – portrays the image of another three-timer, President Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno.

Following an introductory campaign for the new bills, Central Bank authorities explained that these also include security features to prevent counterfeiting, for example, translucent watermarks, color-changing shapes and textured images.