Around the World in 80 Coins - Central America

For the third leg of my journey around the world, I head east, to Central America. The first coin from Central American is a 1993 Mexican five Nuevos Peso. Before 1992 Mexican money was denominated in Pescos, in 1992 a new monetary unit, the Nuevos Pesco was adopted at a rate of 1000 former Pesco to one Nuevos Pesco. This coin has a stainless-steel outer ring and aluminum bronze inner circle, 168,2400,00 were milled in coin alignment at San Luis Potosi by the Casa de Moneda de Mexico. The obverse features the national emblem of Mexico, which is a Mexican golden eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus, eating a snake. Below and on the outer ring is a half wreath of oak and laurel, above on the outer ring is Estados Unidos Mexicanos. The bronze center of the reverse shows the denomination, year and mintmark. On the outside’s reverse there is a stylized designs from the Ring of Splendor from the Aztec calendar stone. Even with large oil reserves the Mexican economy struggled during the 1980’s with many people blaming Mexico’s protectionists policies. Towards the end of the 1980’s Mexico began to reduce trade barriers which lead to the Mexican Senate ratified NAFTA in 1993.

Heading south, the second coin for Central America is a 1999 Costa Rican 100 Colones. Milled in coin alignment, made from copper, aluminum and nickel, 30,000,000 copies were produced by the Fabrica de Moneda de Ibague in Ibague Columbia. Republica De Costa Rica, the Costa Rican Coat of Arms and year are on the obverse. The reverse has the initials B. C. C. R. which is for the coins issuing bank, Banco Central de Costa Rica and two coffee branches. Also on the reverse is the value of the coin in numerals and braille. Costa Rica is one of the few countries that has included braille on their coins and was the last country to issue a coin for circulation that featured braille in 2016. Most coins that do feature braille on their coins do so to raise awareness about people with blindness, while other features of a coin such as it’s size and shape help the blind to determine a coin’s value. Costa Rica has a tradition of being active in the international community on the diplomatic level, the country has no military and have declared permanent neutrality in all international situations as of 1993.

The last stop in Central American is the furthest southern country in Central America, Panama with a 2001 Panamanian un Centesimo de Balboa. 2001 saw the Royal mint in Winnipeg mint 160,000,000 of these copper plated zinc coins that show in coin alignment. The obverse has Republica de Panama above UN CENTESIMO DE BALBOA. On the reverse is URRACA, the name of the portraited chief featured by his bust and year the coin was minted. In 1999 Panama elected its first woman president, Mireya Moscosco. By the early 2000’s Moscosco started a nationwide policy to have more government transparency and eliminate corruption in the government.