Nice '47, thanks. Shows what one
should look like. For anyone who might not know already, the 1947 1-balboa was struck in Philadelphia, and are the same size and of the same alloy as the American silver dollars last coined for circulation in 1935. (This particular Panamanian type, in fact, was first coined at Philadelphia in 1931, during the 1929-33 pause in silver dollar production.)
Is the one I posted a contemporary counterfeit? I think so. It isn't magnetic like so many of the very modern concoctions, and it has better color (you know how so many of the modern mass-produced counterfeits have a faint tin color).
Then, in the junk-box I found it sitting next to a couple of Panama 1/10-balboas, one from '53 and one from '47, and a 1953 25-centavos from El Salvador. (To me they seemed like fellow-travelers from a trip to Central America sometime in the mid- to late-1950s.)
Perhaps the "1-balboa" came back as a voluntary souvenir, or perhaps a tourist got stuck with it. Or perhaps...but maybe that's too
much guessing!
v.