1/2 Balboa

Panama has never operated its own mint — every Balboa coin in this series was struck under contract at the Philadelphia Mint, making U.S. facility records the primary documentation for these issues. The arrangement stems from the 1904 monetary convention that pegged the Balboa at exact parity with the U.S. dollar, a parity that has never been broken.

The 1930 resumption of coinage followed a gap of several years during which U.S. currency simply absorbed domestic demand. KM#12 runs through 1962, but mintages within the series vary sharply — the 1932 issue is notably scarce in circulated grades due to a very low production run ordered during the Depression.