Ecuador's shift to nickel clad steel for this denomination in the late 1960s was a direct response to rising base metal costs — the same pressure that forced monetary authorities across Latin America to debase their smaller coinage during this period. The country was still years away from the oil windfall that would follow the 1972 pipeline completion, and fiscal constraints on coinage were real.
Ecuador's shift to nickel clad steel for this denomination in the late 1960s was a direct response to rising base metal costs — the same pressure that forced monetary authorities across Latin America to debase their smaller coinage during this period. The country was still years away from the oil windfall that would follow the 1972 pipeline completion, and fiscal constraints on coinage were real.