1/2 Real - Philip II

The Casa de la Moneda de Panamá operated for only a handful of years in the early 1580s, making it one of the shortest-lived mints in Spanish colonial history. Authorized to serve the transshipment economy of the isthmus — where Peruvian silver crossed overland to the Atlantic fleets — it was shuttered after Philip II determined that the Panama operation was redundant given the capacity of the Lima and Potosí mints already flooding the trade routes with cob coinage.

MB#1 designation reflects just how foundational this piece is to the series — there is almost nothing above it in the reference hierarchy for this mint.