Numistify guide

Panamanian Coins: A Collector’s Guide to the Balboa and Its Silver

Panama struck its coins to match United States coins in size and silver, which makes them easy to understand and easy to misjudge. Three balboas of exactly the same size carry very different amounts of silver.

Updated October 2026

The short answer

Panama’s silver includes the 1904 series (2½ to 50 centésimos), the 1/10, 1/4 and 1/2 balboa of 1930–1962, the .400 half balboa of 1966–1972, and the balboa at .900 to 1974, .925 from 1975 to 1979 and .500 from 1980 to 1985. The silver balboas share one diameter, so weigh them to tell them apart.

How Panamanian coinage works

The balboa is divided into 100 centésimos. Panama’s coinage falls into a few clear chapters: a single silver series in 1904; a set of fractional balboas from 1930, built to the same specifications as the matching U.S. coins; the silver balboa itself from 1931; a switch to clad coins in 1966 that followed the United States; and, for collectors, commemorative silver and gold from the 1970s.

Because so much of it follows the U.S. standard, most Panamanian silver is .900 fine, and a scale and a date settle almost every identification.

The 1904 series and the “Panama Pill”

The first Panamanian coins, in 1904, were all .900 silver. Their weights follow a simple rule: each coin weighs half its face value in grams, so the 50 centésimos is 25 g and the 2½ centésimos is 1.25 g. Most were struck in 1904 only; the 5 centésimos continued to 1916 and the 50 centésimos to 1905.

The 2½ centésimos is the famous one. At just 10 mm across and 1.25 g it is a remarkably small silver coin, and collectors call it the “Panama Pill”.

The fractional balboas, 1930–1962

In 1930 Panama introduced the 1/10, 1/4 and 1/2 balboa, identical in size and composition to the U.S. dime, quarter and half dollar: .900 silver throughout. Collectors often call the 1/10 balboa a décimo and the 1/4 balboa a cuarto.

They were struck at intervals until 1962. After that, the half balboa changed standard while the smaller coins dropped silver altogether, as the next section explains.

The silver balboa: three standards, one size

The 1 balboa arrived in 1931 on the U.S. silver-dollar standard: .900 fine, 26.73 g, 38.1 mm. It was struck from 1931 to 1947, in 1953, and again from 1966 to 1974.

From 1975 to 1979 the silver balboa was struck in .925 silver at the same 26.73 g, so it carries slightly more silver than the .900 coin. Then from 1980 to 1985 it dropped to .500 silver at 20.74 g, less than half the silver of the earlier coins, still at 38.1 mm.

This is the trap. All three are the same diameter, so the date and above all the weight are what separate them. Alongside them ran a base-metal balboa (cupronickel-clad copper, 22.68 g) with no silver at all, so a balboa from the late 1970s or early 1980s may be any of these.

Do not trust the fineness on the coin by itself. About 22,000 copper-nickel clad balboas dated 1975 and 1976 were struck in error with LEY 0.925 on them, and 11 clad coins of 1982 carry LEY 0.500. A scale settles it: the clad coin weighs 22.68 g against 26.73 g for the .925 silver one.

1966: following the United States off silver

In 1966 Panama changed its coinage the same way the United States had. The 1/10 and 1/4 balboa became cupronickel-clad copper, with no silver. The half balboa kept some silver, dropping to .400 fine at 11.5 g, about 0.1479 oz, and stayed that way until it too went clad in 1973.

The same year, the silver balboa returned for the first time since 1947. So a 1966 to 1972 group of Panamanian coins can hold three different metals at once: clad small change, a 40% half balboa and a 90% balboa.

Bronze and copper-nickel

The smallest denominations were base metal from the start. A copper-nickel ½ centésimo was struck in 1907. The bronze 1 centésimo arrived in 1935 at 3.2 g, followed by a bronze 1¼ centésimos in 1940. With no precious metal in them, what matters to a collector is the date and the condition.

Gold: the 1975 100 balboas

For the 500th anniversary of the birth of Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the explorer the currency is named after, the Franklin Mint struck a 100 balboas gold coin in 1975 (KM-41): .900 gold, 8.16 g, about 0.2361 troy ounces of gold. It is usually seen as a proof, often still in its original case.

Panama also issued silver commemoratives in the 1970s, including a .925 5 balboas in 1970.

Questions collectors ask

Which Panamanian coins are silver?

Among the standard issues: the 1904 series (2½, 5, 10, 25 and 50 centésimos), the 1/10, 1/4 and 1/2 balboa dated 1930 to 1962, the half balboa of 1966 to 1972 (at .400), and the balboa itself in three standards: .900 to 1974, .925 from 1975 to 1979, and .500 from 1980 to 1985. Panama has also issued many silver commemoratives since 1970.

How much silver is in a Panama Pill?

The 1904 2½ centésimos is 1.25 g of .900 silver, about 0.0362 troy ounces. It is only 10 mm across, which is why it earned the nickname.

Is a 1968 Panamanian half balboa silver?

Yes, but only 40%. From 1966 to 1972 the half balboa was .400 silver, 11.5 g, about 0.1479 oz. The 1/10 and 1/4 balboa of the same years are copper-nickel clad, with no silver.

How do you tell the silver balboas apart?

The .900, .925 and .500 balboas are the same 38.1 mm diameter, so size tells you nothing. Weigh it: the .900 and .925 coins weigh 26.73 g, the .500 coin 20.74 g, and the clad copper-nickel coin 22.68 g. Do not rely on the fineness struck on the coin alone, because some clad coins of 1975, 1976 and 1982 carry a silver fineness in error.

What is the Panama 100 balboas gold coin?

A 1975 commemorative for the 500th anniversary of Vasco Núñez de Balboa’s birth, struck by the Franklin Mint: .900 gold, 8.16 g, about 0.2361 troy ounces of gold.

Sources

Specifications are taken from the Numista catalogue entries for Panama and the Wikipedia article Panamanian balboa, cross-checked against published silver-content tables. The 100 balboas gold specification and its proof presentation come from auction lot descriptions at Schulman and Heritage. Catalogue numbers are those of the Standard Catalog of World Coins (KM), as cited by Numista.

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