10 Centavos

Ecuador's 2000 coinage marks the final year the country issued sucre-denominated pieces before formally dollarizing in September of that year — a decision driven by a catastrophic banking crisis that had wiped out roughly half the financial sector and sent inflation past 90%. These coins entered circulation knowing they would soon be obsolete, replaced by U.S. coinage at a fixed rate of 25,000 sucres to the dollar.

Production continued briefly into dollarization purely for fractional convenience, as dollar coins were slow to arrive in sufficient quantity.