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Panama balboas at a US shop: a dollar with a different name, and a very large 20
The balboa has been pegged to the US dollar since 1904. Panama uses US paper and its own coins. Early silver 1/4, 1/2, and 1 balboa coins weigh like US 90% silver. The huge 20 balboas is silver by the ounce, often a Franklin Mint proof.
Panama’s money is the balboa. Since 1904 it has been pegged one-to-one with the US dollar. People there spend US paper every day. The coins say balboa. The value is a dollar. What a dollar is. World coins.
The small ones and the silver
The first 1904 coins included a tiny 2½ centésimos people call the Panama pill. Cute. Not a gold mine.
The 1/10, 1/4, 1/2, and 1 balboa silver coins of the mid-century were made to match US dime/quarter/half/dollar sizes and .900 silver. A 1947 half balboa is a 90% half dollar with a different hero on it. We buy those as junk silver, then look for a collector date.
After the mid-1960s a lot of the small coins went copper-nickel. Face. Same as a US clad quarter.
The huge 20 balboas
In the 1970s the Franklin Mint struck 20 balboas pieces about 61 mm across. Early ones (about 1971–1979) are .925 silver and hold a bit under four troy ounces. Later years drop to .500 and about two ounces. They look like a prize. They are a silver coin with a lot of packaging.
Weigh. Check the fineness on the rim or in a book. Do not pay “twenty dollars plus magic.” What a troy ounce is. What .999 fine guarantees is a different stamp; these are sterling or 50%.
What to do
Pull the silver halves and dollars. Leave the nickel with the world pile. If you have a 20 balboas in a box, bring the box. Bahamas is the other tourist dollar that works the same way.
More on the coin and money library.
Canal Zone pockets
People who worked the Canal or served there mixed US coins, Panama silver, and later Franklin Mint proofs in the same cigar box. Sort silver from nickel first. The 20 balboas is the loud one. The 90% half balboa is the quiet one that actually spends like junk silver.
Brass commissary and PX pieces from the Zone are tokens, not balboas.