Set Description
LEPER COLONY COINS
During the first half of the twentieth century, faced with the increase in cases of tuberculosis and leprosy, the Costa Rican State took care to establish hospitals, preventive clinics and sanatoriums for the sick, but also safeguarding control of the use of coins, as it was considered a "serious threat to public health" and a mechanism of disease transmission. In 1944, for fear of contagion, the minting of special coins and piercing of existing copper-nickel ones was ordered for internal circulation among those with tuberculosis in the Carlos Durán Sanatorium and Las Mercedes Asylum lepers, coins that were used to purchase products in suppliers existing within these institutions.
In a decree of July 1, 1944, the Government of Costa Rica ordered to pierce the copper-nickel existing coins to be used for the use by the sick at the Carlos Durán Sanatorium and the Las Mercedes Asylum. The perforation consisted of a circle extracted from the upper part of the coat of arms of the Republic, proportional to the diameter of each denomination of the coin, in order to preserve the information on its value and the year of its coinage.
The coins of 5, 25, and 50 céntimos and of 1 Colón were pierced. In addition, it was recommended to mint special nickel coins that were never minted because of the limitations of the Second World War. The authorities believed that nickel and copper-nickel due to their magnetic properties were not very corrosive and did not produce verdigris (corrosion), reducing the danger of spreading infections.
A total of 5800 copper-nickel coins were pierced for the use of the sick and another 40 coins as samples for the collection of the National Bank of Costa Rica, now a collection of the Central Bank of Costa Rica, and for the President of Asilo Las Mercedes, to make them known in the determined establishments.
A total of 5800 coins were pierced to be used in the Costa Rican Leper Colonies, being of the following denominations, amounts, years and diameter perforations:
Colon: 505 coins dated 1935 and 495 coins dated 1937, with a perforation of 0.009 mm
50 centimos: 373 coins dated 1935 and 427 coins dated 1937, with a perforation of 0.008 mm
25 centimos: 928 coins dated 1935 and 1072 coins dated 1937, with a perforation of 0.006 mm
5 centimos: 2000 coins of 1942, with a perforation of 0.004 mm
The host coins of this set are legitimate and the piercing that it has is the exact diameter established by the law that created this emission, as shown above, piercing which was made by using a cutting die, applied by the reverse of the piece, which is characteristic of the legitimate pieces. All the coins are graded by NGC and have the Photo Vision service.