First, may I ask if you have an example of the 50 Centavos to help verify my theory? Second, I believe the information about the diameter on the Numista page is incorrect. The diameter should be exactly the same diameter of the U.S. Morgan dollar 38.1MM and not the 37MM stated on the Numista page. I am going to request the diameter be corrected. Now the context. We must understand the circumstances under which these coins were first produced. Panama succeeded from Colombia in 1903. They needed a currency in a hurry and because of U.S. interest in building the canal it was a convenient marriage. The U.S. bought the rights to the canal zone in 1903 for $40 million U.S. The U.S. minted these coins hastily, as the Panamanians did not have the time to establish a currency let alone a cohesive government at the time. Note there was not even the bust of a government representaive on the coin. Who then? Balboa. Hence Panamanian coins minted on U.S. silver planchets such as the 50 Centavos on a U.S. Morgan Dollar planchet but perhaps tweeked slightly to account for the weight discrepency . Why the 50 Centavos denomonation? It certainly could not be valued equally as the mighty U.S. dollar but the silver value was essentially the same although not the denomination. 2.8 million coins for 1904/05 minted at the San Francisco mint was certainly no problem for the U.S. and it helped pay for the rights to the canal zone and injected money into the economy of the new nation. Half of 50c = 25c. 40% of 25c = 10c. Yes, I know, now reconcile the differences between the Barber Quarter and Dime to the Panamanian 25 Centavos and 10 Centavos but that does explain 25g, 12.5g and the 5g weight of the respective Balboa. As mentioned earlier, that was all corrrected later with many of the very same coins melted down that started this topic and needed correction by the Panamanian government.
Edit. I will research the proper thickness, diameters, and other pertinent information of all 3 denominations and make corrections requests as needed.
Yes some Peso based Colombian coins when it was a part of Colombia but Panama was now attempting to establish their own currency based on the new “Balboa” during those transitional years. Notice no 50 Centimos/Balboa there. Everything was chaotic at the time while they established their Independent government.
Latin Monetary Union was followed by countries without officially participating in it.
France, 5 francs, Silver (.900), 25 g, 37 mm diameter.
Venezuela, 5 bolivars, Silver (.900), 25 g. 37mm
It is silver in metric.
Good point and explanation about the weight discrepency and this may due to the French involvement and influence in their previous attempts to construct a canal. The U.S. was now frantically attempting to produce the new currency for an Independent Panama and where things get murky. There is however some conflicting information about the diameter and thickness of the 50 Centimos. 37mm as indicated on Numista and 38.1mm for NGC for instance. This is why I asked if the OP had an example in hand for first hand data.
The US Mint did not make any coins for Columbia in those years. I believe the 1 Peso and ½ Peso correspond to the 50 and 25. I can think of no reason why this report would not mention those.
I think the 16,000,000 mintage for the 25 in Numista/SCWC is wrong and should be 1,600,000.
The US Mint did not make any coins for Columbia in those years. I believe the 1 Peso and ½ Peso correspond to the 50 and 25. I can think of no reason why this report would not mention those.
I think the 16,000,000 mintage for the 25 in Numista/SCWC is wrong and should be 1,600,000.
They wanted to dissassociate themselves from the Colombian/Venezuelan/Bolivia Bolivarian thing based Peso of which they were once union to with Colombia and now trying to assert their independence but still need currency to function. Just going on the information being provided by various sources. PESO ,as in Spain the oppressor. They also had the French and the U.S. there for a reason, to snub Spain. The entire subject is a puzzle.
In this very interesting thread, here some contributions which I hope will help to give some more light in this puzzle.
a) First of all, my example of the 50 Centesimos 1904:
Weight: 24,87 gr
Diameter: 36,1 mm (!!)
b) The Panama Law N° 84/1904, which created the new monetary unit "Balboa", as a gold coin (!) established a relation between the new Panama currency and the US Gold -Dollar of 1,672 gr : 1 Gold Balboa = 1 Gold USD
c) The same law provided the coining of gold coins of 1, 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 Balboas (which were never minted) and the coining of the following fractional silver coins (0.900 silver):
Un (1) Peso = 25 gr, 37 mm, facial value of 50 Centésimos (!!!).
Medio (1/2) Peso = 12,5 gr, 30 mm, 25 Centésimos
Quinto (1/5) de Peso = 5 gr, 25 mm, 10 Centésimos
Décimo (1/10) de Peso = 2,5 gr, 17,5 mm, 5 Centésimos
Vigésimo (1/20) de Peso = 1,25 gr, 10 mm, 2,5 Centésimos (the famous Panama Pill)
And finaly, the Law established that 1 Balboa was equivalent to 2 Pesos (2 x 50 Centésimos).
At the end it turns out that : 1 US Gold Dollar = 1 Gold Balboa = 2 Silver Pesos (of 50 Centésimos each)
I believe the “puzzle” should be solved considering the Gold standard as basis of equivalence between Dollar and Balboa and Peso (50 Centésimos), which was still in use in that time.
So the information in the US Mint report about the 1904/1905 1 and ½ Peso now makes sense. I'm still betting the 16,000,000 mintage of the 25 Centesimos is really 1,610,000 like in the US Mint report.
Indeed, the 36,1 mm is surprising, but it seems to be ok that the 50 Centesimos is a bit smaler than the normal “Crown”-size coins in circulation in other countries at that time. I asked some friends who have Panama collections, and three of them confirmed the size: depending on how accurate the ruler, the figures moved between 36,1 and 36,3 mm.
Regarding the confusing and parallel use of "Peso" and "Balboa": at that time the population of Panama and it's legislators were used to the Peso, since that was the basic monetary unit of Colombia: the crown-sized Un (1) Peso coin, divided in 100 Centavos. On the other hand, in terms of comercial practice , the most common coin in pre 1903 (colombian province of) Panama was the Colombian 50 Centavos coin (with a fines of 0.835 silver).
So, when the Law Nr. 84 / 1904 created the new gold Balboa with the equivalence of 2 silver Pesos, the newby legislators -always having in mind the agreements with the USA- tried to respect certain continuity regarding the population and the comercial customs and decided to nominate those Pesos with the value 50 Centesimos.
This confusing situation was finaly corrected, as fjjohnson already mentioned above, by a new law in 1930, which allowed the coining of the first silver Balboa proper in 1931 (with the “normal” crown size).
And last but not least, I don't believe the legislators of 1904 had any intention at all to “snub Spain”, as:
1st) the old colonial power had left that region almost 90 years before (and was already and decisively replaced since 1898 by a new hegemonial power: the USA with it's great interest not only focused on the construction of the Canal); and 2nd) the new coin was named commemorating a Spanish conquistador, the discoverer Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.
Seems everybody else has it at 16,000,000 as well. There is alot of conflicting information. I am not sure at this point where I read the San Fransico mint for the 04/05 50 Centesimos but I did not pull that out of my hat. Perhaps this 1,600,000 figure is just what the Philadelphia mint produced while the others where minted elsewhere such as San Francisco? I simply dont know. You would think that after 120 years this subject would have been investigated and solved already. Some of the information I do see are the usual resources. KM. NGC, Numismaster, etc. Numismaster doesnt even show the mint. I.E - N/A
Yes, I looked at all those same references and all have the 16,000,000 probably all copies from SCWC. The SCWC catalog has been known to add/drop a 0 to the mintages when the changed the format from reporting in thousands to the full number. Anyone have an older one available to look at? The US Mint report has been very reliable on everything else I researched in the past. Not that they couldn't be mistaken but the records in the report weren't generated new in 1980 but were transcribed from actual records in the Mint archives so the 1904/1905 data was generated soon after production ceased. They report San Francisco mint separately for other coins so not sure why they wouldn't do that here. I believe the correct mintage is 1,610,000 and SCWC is wrong but without enough substantiating proof to request a change.
This also stands out to me:
Value Mintage US Mint Report
2½ Centésimos 400,000 400,000
5 Centésimos 1,500,000 1,500,000
10 Centésimos 1,125,000 1,125,000
25 Centésimos 16,000,000 1,610,000
50 Centésimos 2,800,000* 2,800,000*
*combined 1904/05
On second thought, I'm pretty certain 16,000,000 is incorrect.
In this very interesting thread, here some contributions which I hope will help to give some more light in this puzzle.
a) First of all, my example of the 50 Centesimos 1904:
Weight: 24,87 gr
Diameter: 36,1 mm (!!)
b) The Panama Law N° 84/1904, which created the new monetary unit "Balboa", as a gold coin (!) established a relation between the new Panama currency and the US Gold -Dollar of 1,672 gr : 1 Gold Balboa = 1 Gold USD
c) The same law provided the coining of gold coins of 1, 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 Balboas (which were never minted) and the coining of the following fractional silver coins (0.900 silver):
Un (1) Peso = 25 gr, 37 mm, facial value of 50 Centésimos (!!!).
Medio (1/2) Peso = 12,5 gr, 30 mm, 25 Centésimos
Quinto (1/5) de Peso = 5 gr, 25 mm, 10 Centésimos
Décimo (1/10) de Peso = 2,5 gr, 17,5 mm, 5 Centésimos
Vigésimo (1/20) de Peso = 1,25 gr, 10 mm, 2,5 Centésimos (the famous Panama Pill)
And finaly, the Law established that 1 Balboa was equivalent to 2 Pesos (2 x 50 Centésimos).
At the end it turns out that : 1 US Gold Dollar = 1 Gold Balboa = 2 Silver Pesos (of 50 Centésimos each)
I believe the “puzzle” should be solved considering the Gold standard as basis of equivalence between Dollar and Balboa and Peso (50 Centésimos), which was still in use in that time.
Regrads
This reason for different weights of balboa/dollar is also stated by Brian R. Stickney-Numismatic History of the Republic of Panama, San Antonio, 1971. :
“The United States recognized a 16 to 1 ratio [silver to gold]. in other words, 16 units of silver were equivalent in value to 1 equal unit of gold. Hence, the United States gold dollar from 1849 to 1889 weighed 25.8 grains which is almost exactly one-sixteenth the weight of the Morgan silver dollar which weighs 412.5 grains. Panama, however, used a 32 to 1 ratio to determine the values of gold to silver or twice as great as that of the United States. In other words, 32 units of silver had the same value as 1 equal unit of gold. Since the standard unit of money in each country was in essence the United States gold dollar, one can see why Panama's silver coins were twice as large as those of the United States.”
Yes, I looked at all those same references and all have the 16,000,000 probably all copies from SCWC. The SCWC catalog has been known to add/drop a 0 to the mintages when the changed the format from reporting in thousands to the full number. Anyone have an older one available to look at? The US Mint report has been very reliable on everything else I researched in the past. Not that they couldn't be mistaken but the records in the report weren't generated new in 1980 but were transcribed from actual records in the Mint archives so the 1904/1905 data was generated soon after production ceased. They report San Francisco mint separately for other coins so not sure why they wouldn't do that here. I believe the correct mintage is 1,610,000 and SCWC is wrong but without enough substantiating proof to request a change.
This also stands out to me:
Value Mintage US Mint Report
2½ Centésimos 400,000 400,000
5 Centésimos 1,500,000 1,500,000
10 Centésimos 1,125,000 1,125,000
25 Centésimos 16,000,000 1,610,000
50 Centésimos 2,800,000* 2,800,000*
*combined 1904/05
On second thought, I'm pretty certain 16,000,000 is incorrect.
The Stickney's book from 1971 I quoted earlier also lists 1,610,000 pieces of 25 Centésimos.
