Obverse Design

The chit was made out of a small disposable wooden ice cream spoon that was apparently stamped with an ink stamp. From a couple lines on the chit, the ink stamp has apparently has a rectangular solid border, and either three lines of text. The visible part of the first line (on the reverse side) is the final letter "a" with perhaps an "r" as the letter before that. This could be end of the word "Abarroteria". The second line says "FLORIDA" in a large font. The bottom line says "Calle 7 y Balboa" which is the street address.

The chit has been written over with a blue pen to clarify the address and says "7 a y Balboa". At the edge of the spoon it says "5¢".

It appears that the chit was made with an ink stamp. The letters are precise in size but not as much in orientation, and so perhaps some printer's type was used to make the stamp.

Reverse Design

The reverse has the same design as the obverse, and was stamped with the same ink stamp, only at a slightly different angle. On this side, the "5¢" was added at the end of the spoon but the address was not rewritten.

Color Natural wood with black ink (written over with blue pen). Material Wooden ice cream spoon. Size and Shape Spoon-shaped, only known example is 64½ mm wide by 17 mm high.
Dates Issued Unknown.
Issurer Abarroteria Florida located in Colon, Panama. The word "Florida" in Spanish is from the root word for "flower" and means something like "flowerful". I could not find an online translation of "abarroteria". However, the abarroteria's I knew in Panama were little general stores that sold little of everything but mostly grocery items.
Mintage Unknown.
Rarity Very Rare. Manufacturer Appears handmade by the merchant. Source Private collection.
Varieties None known.
Function Most likely used in lieu of small change to purchase store items.
Notes For population count, known specimens are as follows:
  1. Private collection, one specimen.