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20 Balboas
| Issuer | Banco Central de Emisión de la República de Panamá |
|---|---|
| Year | 1941 |
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| Printer | Hamilton Bank Note Company (HBNC), New York, United States |
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| Obverse description | The central vignette presents a rural agricultural scene in which a farmer guides an ox cart through a sugarcane field, rendered in fine intaglio engraving against an intricate guilloche underprint in orange and purple tones. The denomination numeral '20' appears in large figures at left and right, with serial numbers printed in the upper corners. Legends in letterpress run along the top and bottom margins, identifying the issuing bank and the note's legal tender status. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in orange-brown on a dense guilloche background, with the Coat of Arms of Panama centrally positioned within an ornate circular frame. The word 'VEINTE' appears in rectangular panels flanking the central vignette on both left and right, and the denomination numeral '20' is repeated in all four corners. The printer's imprint appears along the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
Panama's currency history is unusual: the Balboa had existed as a monetary unit since 1904, but the country relied almost entirely on US dollars for paper circulation, with the Balboa existing mainly as coinage. The Banco Central de Emisión was created specifically to issue paper Balboas — a short-lived experiment in asserting a distinct paper currency. The bank was dissolved and these notes demonetized within the same year they were issued, making 1941 the entire lifespan of the institution.
The brevity of that window means genuine circulation examples are rare. Most of the print run was cancelled or destroyed during demonetization, and survivors tend to show minimal wear for precisely that reason. Hamilton Bank Note Company produced several Latin American series during this period from their New York operation.