Along with United State dollar, the Panama balboa is one of the official currencies of Panama with currency code PAB and symbol B/. It is subdivided into 100 centésimos. The money is named in honour of Spanish explorer/conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa.
The Panama Balboa was introduced as an official currency in 1904 by replacing the Colombian peso. In 2016, balboa was pegged to the United States dollar with an expectation of fluctuation. The first series of balboa coins were introduced in 1904 in denominations of 2 1⁄2, 5, 10, 25, and 50 centésimos.
In 1941, Arnulfo Arias, the Panama President pushed to the government to enact the constitution, authorizing the private and official banks to issue paper money. On 30th September 1941, as a result, the central bank of Panama was established for this purpose.
El Banco Central de Emisión de la República de Panamá (the Central bank of Panama) was authorized to issue up to 6,000,000 worth of balboas paper notes, but only 2,700,000 prices of note were issued on 2nd October 1941.
A week later, the currency was replaced in a coup supported by the United States. The new President Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango immediately closed the bank and withdrew all issued notes and burned all unissued stock.