1/4 Balboa Piedfort

Piedfort coins — struck at double or greater thickness on specially prepared planchets — have roots in French mint practice dating to the 16th century, where they served as presentation pieces and die trials for official inspection. Panama's adoption of the format for this 1982 issue followed a broader trend of Latin American mints producing piedfort sets aimed squarely at the collector market during the early 1980s commodity boom. The .400 gold alloy is notably low in fineness for a bullion-adjacent piece, suggesting this was never intended as a gold-weight vehicle.