A Stellar Discovery

I finally have had a chance to catch my breath after the Oklahoma City Coin Club hosted the ANA’s World’s Fair of Money^® in Oklahoma City in August. As a club member, the past few months have been a busy and exciting time, and the event went wonderfully well. I was able to reconnect with acquaintances from past ANA conventions and Summer Seminars, while also experiencing the behind-the-scenes work of convention chairs and serving as a judge and exhibitor. 

In between my duties as co-chair, I was able to spend some time visiting with dealers on the floor and browsing their offerings. I am pleased with the items I was able to secure for my collection. They will serve me well as I prepare higher quality and well-researched exhibits for future conventions and videos for my YouTube channel.

I purchased a stunning note: a 10,000-colones Costa Rican bank note. Cataloged as Pick #267, this high-denomination issue features an attractive color scheme and a somewhat restrained depth of coloring. It also has a few surprises.

Esteemed Educator

Appearing on the face of this bank note, to the right, is a portrait of Emma Gamboa. A prominent Costa Rican educator, Gamboa earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees at Ohio State University. She became a founding member of professional groups, authored textbooks, and helped develop schools of higher education in Costa Rica. In 1980 she was posthumously honored by the legislature as being “well-deserving of the Homeland.” To the left, a watermark shows her portrait.

Wildcats

The back of this note reveals an additional surprise. In all the years I have been aware of and wanted this note, it is because of the fantastic puma that appears on the back. The puma goes by many names. When we find one in my state of Oklahoma, it’s called a mountain lion. It’s also known as a cougar and a panther.

As I was looking at this note, enjoying the image and appreciating the fact that many nations are now providing Latin names for the flora and fauna on their bank notes, I noticed that in addition to the word “puma” is the word “jaguar.” I was surprised, because jaguar is not a term I have ever seen used interchangeably with puma. Friends, that is when I made an astounding observation.

I have always wanted this note for its depiction of a puma. I already have a small collection of notes with jaguars, and this was not a note I wanted or needed for that purpose—or so I thought. To the left of the puma is an extremely well-camouflaged image of a jaguar’s face. If it had been a snake, it would have bitten me. My surprise at this discovery turned to delight. It is nice to be humbled, and I always appreciate discovering something that I probably should have been aware of from the start. But the surprises did not stop there.

Light Show

At the ANA show, I purchased a lovely piece of technology (basically a fancy flashlight) with eight lights on either end—red lights, natural lights, and several kinds of black lights. I flicked off the overhead lights in my office and powered on my new device to check the note for a fluorescent response. I am rarely surprised by fluorescence anymore, but I was stunned by the light response on this note. 

When George Cuhaj and I began including fluorescent detail in the Krause catalogs (Standard Catalog of World Coins), it was not widely discussed or noted as a feature. That has changed, and light effects have become a welcome part of modern bank note designs.

You might be used to seeing threads, fibers, and strips fluoresce, and sometimes numbers, inks, and planchettes. But this magnificent note includes none of those things. What appears under a black light is a breathtaking display—a sky full of twinkling stars. It seems as if a light-responsive powder or such has been embedded in the paper or the ink. At first, I wondered if a previous owner had coughed on the note. It is truly stellar, in the Latin sense of the word.

I will be making a video of this note for my YouTube channel, Numismatic Notes with Benjamin, and I hope I can adequately convey the beauty of this gem. Have a jewel of a day! 

A version of this article appears in the November 2025 issue of The Numismatist (money.