20 Balboas Vasco Nunez de Balboa

Panama's large-format silver issues of this period were tied directly to the country's effort to position itself as a player in the international commemorative coin market during the 1970s and early 1980s. The 20 Balboa denomination was never intended for circulation — these were produced for export sale to collectors, with proceeds contributing to foreign exchange earnings at a moment when Panama's dollarized economy left it no independent monetary levers to pull.

Balboa himself crossed the Isthmus in 1513, becoming the first European to sight the Pacific from the Americas. He was executed by beheading in 1519 on orders from the Spanish governor Pedrarias Dávila, his former patron turned rival.