Costa Rica will keep its currency

[part...@yahoo.com]

Costa Rica held its presidential election on Sunday, and former vice
president Laura Chinchilla has won. She will be Costa Rica's first
female president, which is the angle most of the news reports are
taking.

But one of the losing candidates would have been numismatically more
interesting. Otto Guevara had promised that, if elected, he would
make the US dollar Costa Rica's official currency. (US dollars are
official currency in El Salvador and Ecuador already.) Dollars are
widely accepted in all areas of the country that US tourists visit
(which is to say, everywhere in the country) but the official currency
is the colon. While the circulating Costa Rican coins would be no
great loss, I would be sad if their colorful paper money were
replaced:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23911267@N06/4197228853/

-Robert A. DeRose, Jr.