The Imaginarium

Welcome to BORRING's newest section - the Imaginarium, where our editors beckon those who haven't experienced Costa Rican life to imagine...

You're about to print millions upon millions of copies of the most important document in our modern society - paper currency.

Imagine working around the clock to invent imaginative ways to counter would-be forgers, and ensure that no one can replicate your document easily. Imagine proof-reading this document. There are only a couple of dozen words on it, and the numbers are much more important, anyhow.

Imagine being in charge of issuing new currency in a country called Costa Rica, the formal name of which is "República de Costa Rica." Imagine printing millions of $2 bills (the lowest denomination of paper currency available) with the words "Estado de Costa Rica," which is the formal name of absolutely nothing.

There is no country in the world that is called the "State of Costa Rica," as mountains of $2 bills would now have us believe. [See picture.] There is only the "Republic of Costa Rica" - a nation that apparently can't find someone able to correctly proofread a couple dozen words...

(Above, note the use of the words, "Estado de Costa Rica," in the yellow ring in the center of this bill. A direct translation of the phrase would be "State of Costa Rica," which is the name of a country that doesn't exist and probably never will.)