1/4 Real

Ecuador's early republican coinage was chronically underfunded, and the billon fractional issues of the early 1840s reflect a mint struggling to maintain even minimal silver content. The Quito mint, operating under persistent financial and political instability following independence, produced these small-denomination pieces partly to address a shortage of everyday transaction coinage that had plagued the region since the colonial period ended.

KM#26 is among the more elusive of the Quito fractional types in collectible condition — the low silver content accelerated surface corrosion, and the coins were struck on poorly prepared planchets to begin with.