20 Balboas Republic

Panama's oversized silver issues of the 1970s were tied directly to the country's fraught negotiations with the United States over canal sovereignty. The 1978 date is pointed: the Torrijos-Carter Treaties had been signed in September 1977, and a second ratification vote in the U.S. Senate passed in April 1978 by a single vote margin, clearing the path for eventual Panamanian control of the canal in 1999.

KM#54 is the second of two 20 Balboa types in the series, distinguished from its predecessor by die characteristics that specialists track closely given the limited mintage figures involved.