Question About A Panama 50 Cents Silver Crown 1904

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Once Panamá won independence from Colombia, it needed to create a new coinage system that would fit the needs of the people of Panamá and the be acceptable to the United States which was about to start construction on the Panama Canal (and intended to pay the majority of the canal workers in Panamanian money). The system Panama developed was a hybird between the Colombian pesos that people were used to and the United States dollar. Several background factors are important to remember:

Colombia had had several periods of bad inflation, primarily affecting their paper money.
Silver was relatively cheap, such that a United States silver dollar had less than 50 cents worth of silver in it.
The exchange rate of Columbian pesos to American dollars was about 2.30 pesos to 1.00 dollars.

To help facilitate the construction of the Panama Canal, the government of Panamá established parity or a ratio of one-to-one between Panamanian and American currency. Panamá went on the gold standard (although no gold coins were issued for the next 70 years) with one gold Balboa equivalent to one gold American dollar. American money was made legal tender in Panamá.

Looking back on the inflation of bills issued by Colombia, Panamá selected to issue only coins and rely on American bills. With silver being so cheap and desiring to impress the world with a stable currency, Panamá choose to put twice as much silver in its coins as the United States had at that time. Thus Panamá's first coins were similar in size to the next highest denomination of American coins. The Panama five centésimos coin was about the size of an American dime, the Panama ten centésimos coin was about the size of an American quarter, the Panama twenty-five centésimos coin was about the size of an American half-dollar and the Panamá fifty centésimos coin was about the size of an American silver dollar.