If you plan on traveling around
Costa Rica you should be familiar with the money used here- and there's a
LOT of it.
Check out this video to clear things up.
Currency in Costa Rica is called the '
Colon'. It was named after
Christopher Columbus, and was introduced as the official currency in 1896, replacing the money used in Costa Rica before (the peso). The correct plural pronunciation is Colones. The colon comes in bills denominated in the following amounts: 10,
000, 5,000, 2,000, and 1,000 colones. The coins are denominated in
500,
100, 50, 20, 10, and 5 colones.
Recently, the central bank has printed gold coins in all the same denominations mentioned above, however, several of them are smaller than those presently in circulation, and therefore, do not work in any of the public machines, i.e. telephones, etc.
In Costa Rica, monetary units are very close to the countrys history and cultural facts, for example, bills have a different picture of an important character throughout
Costa Ricas history:
•
1000 colones bill honors
Tomas Soley, an important politician once minister of commerce in Costa Rica.
• 5000 colones bill commemorates Costa Ricas ecological resources by an impressive picture of a Tucan in its natural environment
• 10 000 colones bill portraits
Emma Gamboa an important teacher of Costa Rica.
Some of the currencies of Costa Rica 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
In Costa Rica, exchanges rates change daily.
Please 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.
Do not exchange your
U.S. money for
Costa Rican currency in the U.S. before leaving.
The U.S. dollar can easily be exchanged here at a better rate. Currency from other countries can only be exchanged at the central bank in
San José, and is a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong process.
For more helpful travel information on Costa Rica make sure you check out our website and our blog.
Our
Travel Tip Website-
http://www.TravelCostaRicaNow.com
michael alan's blog - http://www.DoingCostaRica.blogspot.com/
Our pictures from around Costa Rica - http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelcostaricanow_com/
Our
Gay Travel Tip Webpage - http://travelcostaricanow.com/index
.php/Gay
michael alan's gay blog - http://www.DoinGayCostaRica.blogspot.com
Lots more travel tips on video by us - http://www.youtube.com/user/iCostaRica24
.
- published: 22 Dec 2008
- views: 26188