Item: i115096

Authentic Coin of:

Panama
Carlos Juan Finlay
1979 Proof Copper-Nickel Clad Copper 5 Centésimos 21.21mm (5.00 grams)
Reference: KM# 35 (1975-1982)
REPUBLICA DE PANAMA PRO MUNDI BENEFICI,O FM 5 CENTESIMOS, Panamanian Coat-of-Arms below an arc of nine stars.
CARLOS J. FINLAY, Head of Carlos J. Finlay facing 1/4 left, year below.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

Carlos Juan Finlay (December 3, 1833 – August 20, 1915) was a Cban epidemiologist recognized as a pioneer in the research of yellow fever, determining that it was transmitted through mosquitoes Aedes aegypti.

Finlay’s work, carried out during the 1870s, finally came to prominence in 1900. He was the first to theorize, in 1881, that a mosquito was a carrier, now known as a disease vector, of the organism causing yellow fever: a mosquito that bites a victim of the disease could subsequently bite and thereby infect a healthy person. He presented this theory at the 1881 International Sanitary Conference, where it was well received. A year later Finlay identified a mosquito of the genus Aedes as the organism transmitting yellow fever. His theory was followed by the recommendation to control the mosquito population as a way to control the spread of the disease.

His hypothesis and exhaustive proofs were confirmed nearly twenty years later by the Walter Reed Commission of 1900. Finlay went on to become the chief health officer of Cba from 1902 to 1909. Although Reed received much of the credit in history books for “beating” yellow fever, Reed himself credited Finlay with the discovery of the yellow fever vector, and thus how it might be controlled. Reed often cited Finlay’s papers in his own articles and gave him credit for the discovery in his personal correspondence.

In the words of General Leonard Wood, a physician and U.S. military governor of Cba in 1900: “The confirmation of Dr. Finlay’s doctrine is the greatest step forward made in medical science since Jenner’s discovery of the vaccination.”

This discovery helped William C. Gorgas reduce the incidence and prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases in Panama during the American campaign, from 1903 onwards, to construct the Panama Canal. Prior to this, about 10% of the workforce had died each year from malaria and yellow fever.

Finlay was a member of Havana’s Royal Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences. He was fluent in French, German, Spanish, and English and could read Latin. His interests were widespread and he wrote articles on subjects as varied as leprosy, cholera, gravity, and plant diseases. His main interest, however, was yellow fever, and he was the author of 40 articles on this disease. His theory that an intermediary host was responsible for the spread of the disease was treated with ridicule for years. A humane man, he often took on patients who could not afford medical care. As a result of his work, Finlay was nominated seven times for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, although he was never awarded the prize. He received the National Order of the Legion of Honour of France in 1908.

Finlay died from a stroke, caused by severe brain seizures, at his house in Havana on August 20, 1915.

In 1928, President Gerardo Machado established the National Order of Merit Carlos J. Finlay, rewarding contributions to healthcare and medicine. It is the highest scientific decoration awarded by the Cban Council of State. The order was discontinued between 1959 and 1981.

On Cba Street in downtown Old Havana, the Revolutionary Government in 1962 founded a medical history museum in honor of Carlos J. Finlay. On the wall of the Finlay Medical History Museum in Havana, the inscription states, “History Museum of the Medical Sciences ‘ Carlos J. Finlay’, created by the Revolutionary Government in eternal homage to the men who contributed to the advance of the sciences in Cba. National Commission of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Cba. Havana, 13 June 1962.”

In the municipality of Marianao, now within the city of Havana, there is a monument in the shape of a syringe, honoring Finlay and usually referred to as El Obelisco (The Obelisk). Finlay was also commemorated on a 1981 Cban stamp. A statue commemorating Finlay is located on the bayfront in Panama City, near the canal he helped make possible.

The UNESCO Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology is named in his honor.

Finlay was honoured with a Google Doodle on December 3, 2013, on the 180th anniversary of his birth. Carlos J. Finlay Military Hospital is named after him.

The Finlay Institute for Vaccines (Instituto Finlay de vacunas, in Spanish), created in 1991, is named after him.

Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is the southernmost country of Central America and the whole of North America.

Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The capital and largest city is Panama City, whose metro area is home to nearly half of the country’s 3.6 million people.

Panama was inhabited by several indigenous tribes prior to settlement by the Spanish in the 16th century. It broke with Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, and Venezuela named the Republic of Gran Colombia. When Gran Colombia dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada remained joined, eventually becoming the Republic of Colombia. With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, allowing the Panama Canal to be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. In 1977, an agreement was signed for the total transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama by the end of the 20th century, which culminated on 31 December 1999.

Revenue from canal tolls continues to represent a significant portion of Panama’s GDP, although commerce, banking, and tourism are major and growing sectors. Panama has the second largest economy in Central America and it is also the fastest growing economy and the largest per capita consumer in Central America. In 2013, Panama ranked 5th among Latin American countries in terms of the Human Development Index, and 59th in the world. Since 2010, Panama remains the second most competitive economy in Latin America, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index. Covering around 40 percent of its land area, Panama’s jungles are home to an abundance of tropical plants, animals and birds – some of them to be found nowhere else in the world.