Panama Question

[jtryka]

I recently bought a 1969 Panama proof set on eBay, mainly for the Balboa which in this set was still the same as a silver dollar (26.73g 0.900 fine silver), but I thought the dime, quarter and half would be clad since they are the same as US coins. The quarter and dime are what I expect, but the half looks to be silver, perhaps 40% silver. Did Panama use the same 40% silver composition on halves that the US did in the late 1960s? Whether it's silver or not, I can't complain since I paid less than $12 for the set including shipping!

[physics-fan3.14]

A brief check of Krause confirms that Panama made 40% silver halves until 1972, although 71 and 72 were proof only. The half balboa in your set is indeed 40%. The lower denominations appear to have switch over to clad around the same time we did.

[physics-fan3.14]

Incidentally, nice purchase. Krause lists the '69 proof set at $25.

[jtryka]

Thanks, I got lucky, I put in my bid at melt value, but thinking that the smaller denominations were also 90% silver! Luckily, I was the only bidder on the set, interesting that they did 40% silver halves later than we did, though it's not surprising since they issued full size silver Balboas (same specs as a US silver dollar) for circulation as late as 1966.

[World Colonial]

I've always liked this set and owned three different ones from the 1960's at one time. The pricing on them is weak though.

[satootoko]

Well, it's clear that this forum has a more active membership than Coin People, where I was the only respondent to this inquiry.