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Panama’s currency, the balboa, is named for the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa and is divided into 100 centésimos. Panama introduced the balboa in 1904, shortly after seceding from Colombia in 1903, replacing the Colombian peso and fixing the new currency to the US dollar at a one-to-one rate that has held ever since. […]
Nicaragua’s currency, the córdoba, is named for Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, the Spanish conquistador credited with founding León and Granada. Nicaragua created the córdoba under the Monetary Conversion Law of March 1912, establishing the National Bank of Nicaragua at the same time and replacing the peso moneda corriente that had circulated since 1878, though political […]
Jamaica’s currency is the Jamaican dollar, introduced in 1969 to replace the Jamaican pound following a 1968 parliamentary vote to decimalize the currency. The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has been the sole issuer of Jamaican banknotes and coins since its founding in 1960. Circulating denominations include coins from one to twenty dollars and banknotes from […]
Honduras’s national currency is the lempira, introduced in 1931 to replace the earlier peso at par. It takes its name from Lempira, a sixteenth-century Lenca cacique remembered for resisting Spanish conquest. The Central Bank of Honduras (Banco Central de Honduras, or BCH) has held sole authority over currency issuance since assuming banknote production in 1950, […]
Mexico’s currency is the peso, introduced in 1863 to replace the Spanish colonial real under a decimal system of 100 centavos. Silver pesos later circulated widely abroad and influenced the design of other currencies, including the US dollar. In 1993, Mexico redenominated the currency by removing three zeros, creating the “nuevo peso” before the “nuevo” […]
