Exchange Rate in Costa Rica

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 country’s history and cultural facts, for example, bills have a different 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.
• 5000 colones bill commemorates Costa Rica’s 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.

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