Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco del Ecuador |
|---|---|
| Year | 1884-1887 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Peso (1884-1898) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central vignette in intaglio shows a classical allegorical female figure seated on a rocky outcrop, surrounded by agricultural and maritime implements, with tropical foliage to the right. To the left, an ornate cartouche contains the arms of Ecuador with an eagle supporter, set within a geometric guilloche underprint in green and orange. The denomination is stated in bold letterpress as "CINCO PESOS" at centre, with the place of issue "Guayaquil" and a partially printed date below, and the printer's imprint of the American Bank Note Company at the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO DEL ECUADOR CINCO PESOS VALE CINCO PESOS en moneda corriente Guayaquil, 18 GERENTES CINCO 5 CINCO American Bank Note Co. N.Y. |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Banco del Ecuador was a private commercial bank operating out of Guayaquil, not a central institution — Ecuador had no central bank until 1927. In the 1880s, several competing private banks held the right to issue currency simultaneously, creating a patchwork monetary system that the government struggled to regulate and that foreign creditors viewed with considerable skepticism.
The American Bank Note Company contract for this series placed it among the better-secured private emissions of the period. ABNC work from this era is generally consistent in quality, though the Banco del Ecuador issues are among the less commonly encountered in collections today, likely reflecting the bank's eventual absorption into the turmoil surrounding Ecuador's 1890s banking crises.