25 Centésimos Ruins of Old Panama

Panama issued this piece as part of a broader commemorative program tied to the 500th anniversary of Spanish colonial settlement in the region. Old Panama — Panama Viejo — was the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific coast of the Americas, founded in 1519 by Pedrarias Dávila, and destroyed in 1671 when the Welsh privateer Henry Morgan sacked and burned the city so thoroughly that the Spanish chose to rebuild four miles west rather than reconstruct on the original site.

The ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, six years before this coin's release.