20 Balboas Discoverer of the Pacific

Panama issued this piece to mark the 470th anniversary of Vasco Núñez de Balboa's 1513 crossing of the Darién and his sighting of the Pacific — the first confirmed European view of that ocean from the Americas. Balboa waded into the water in full armor to claim it for the Spanish Crown, a gesture that did him little good: he was beheaded on orders from his rival Pedro Arias Dávila in 1519.

The half-silver alloy places it firmly in the category of large-format commemoratives prioritizing size over precious metal content — a common calculus in 1980s Latin American issues aimed at the collector market rather than circulation.