5 Balboas

Panama's Banco Central de Emisión had one of the shortest institutional lifespans in Latin American banking history — established and dissolved within 1941 itself, the victim of fierce political opposition and pressure from the National Assembly, which viewed the new central bank as a threat to the existing commercial banking arrangement. The notes it issued, including this 5 Balboas, were recalled almost immediately after issue, making the entire series genuinely scarce rather than artificially so.

HBNC printed this series under circumstances that gave it almost no circulation window at all. The bank's charter was revoked before the notes could penetrate ordinary commerce.