Panama 1988 balboa KMX-3

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Stack's Bowers May 2024 Collector's Choice sale, lot 34451
SB524-34451r.jpg

This specimen was lot 34451 in Stack's Bowers Collector's Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, May 2024), where it sold for $2,520. The catalog description[1] noted, "PANAMA. Platinum Off-Metal Strike Balboa, 1988. Olympic Series, Biathlon. NGC PROOF-69 Ultra Cameo. An EXCEEDINGLY RARE off-metal issue that varies from the expected Copper-Nickel or Silver of this type, we can find no other examples in Platinum trading, leaving it as an issue that at very least offers the collector of Panamanian coinage the chance at an extremely elusive issue. A piece that is doubtlessly deserving of adulation and cherishing by the many collectors of numismatic treasures from Panama." The SCWC consigns this series (KM X1 thru X12) to the Unusual World Coins, and likely rightly so, as it doesn't appear to have been an authorized issue. We don't think the most corrupt government minister would have allowed the denomination to be written "1.00 VNBALBOA". Strikes in copper-nickel and silver are mentioned but not platinum.

Recorded mintage: est. 50,000 in copper-nickel plus est. 20,000 in silver.

Specification: 15 g, copper-nickel or silver, 32 mm diameter. This specimen is platinum, weight unknown.

Catalog reference: Fr-Unlisted; cf. KMX-3 (Copper-Nickel), KMX-3a (silver).

Source:

  • Friedberg, Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, From Ancient Times to the Present, 9th ed., Clifton, NJ: Coin and Currency Institute, 2017.
  • Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Unusual World Coins, 6th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2011.
  • [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, May 2024 World Collectors Choice Online Auction, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2024.

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