So...

I got all of my laundry done.  Had a few quarters left over, and found something that is the same size as a quarter, feels the same weight as a quarter, it obviously was spent like a quarter, even accepted by a business and a bank as a quarter!  I went to the bank the other day to get a roll of quarters in order to do my laundry.  It was just fate, that I opened one end versus the other and didn't just blindly put it into the machine.

Had to do a little research to find out what I had now in my possession.  And interestingly enough, what I had was actually worth $0.25 USD.

I had received, "Un Cuarto de Balboa."  A 'quarter' or 1/4 of a Balboa.

This is the currency of Panama!  That last Country you get to in Central America, right before one arrives in South America...  Where the Panama Canal is...

Now, as I said, what I had was actually worth $0.25 USD.  Why?  Because the Panamanian Balboa (PAB) has been tied to the United States Dollar (USD) at a 1:1 exchange ratio ever since 1903!  Google it!

Here's the reverse...

I find the appearance or design quite interesting.  A portrait of Vasco Núñez de Balboa on the obverse, just like George Washington's on the US Quarter.  On the reverse, the name of the issuing Country, an eagle with outstretched wings, and the decorative wreath of olive branches...  The design of this coin has obviously been influenced by the look of US Currency.

There is no paper money printed in Panama.  They use the USD as there paper currency!  And as far as the other coinage... you guessed it... un centésimos, cinco centésimos, diez centésimos, and the cincuenta centésimos.  Occasionally, Panama issues a un Balboa coin as well.

What I really find interesting... is that this coin just didn't magically arrive in Yuma, AZ.  It had to have been carried here.  But, by whom?  I know that it is impossible to trace the history and travels of coins, unlike paper currency that has a serial number on it, yet it is something to think about and imagine where this coin has been, and the route it has taken for the last 19 years...