1/4 Balboa Breast Cancer Awareness

Panama issued this quarter alongside a broader Inter-American health awareness campaign in 2008, with the pink ribbon motif entering national coinage at a time when several Latin American mints were producing similar commemorative circulation strikes under WHO-affiliated public health initiatives. The Panamanian balboa, pegged one-to-one with the US dollar since 1904 and never issued as paper currency, means these pieces circulated interchangeably with American quarters — an unusual fate for a commemorative type.