Costa Rican Currency - Hannah

I thought I'd show you what Costa Rican currency looks like. It's much more colorful than U.S. currency, which makes it easier to keep straight.

A 20 mil colones bill (which is 20,000 colones, roughly equivalent
to $40 in the United States) and a 10 mil colones bill

The backs of the same bills, with pictures of a
hummingbird and a sloth. We have yet to see a sloth.

   

A 5 mil colones bill and a 2 mil colones bill

The backs of the same bills, with pictures of a monkey and a shark.

The front and back of a 1 mil colones bill, worth about 2 US dollars.

The bills are all slightly different sizes. I was told this is so
blind people can manage them better. I thought that was cool.
Also, the bills seem slightly more waterproof than in the US,
which is helpful in the high humidity.

A few coins. 100 colones is worth about 20 US cents and
the 5 colones coin is about 1 US penny. 

I was proud of myself today when I corrected someone who gave me 700 colones, but was supposed to give me 7000 colones ($1.40 versus $14). I wonder how many times that kind of thing has happened before, but I missed it.