1 Sucre

Ecuador's sucre was named after Antonio José de Sucre, the Venezuelan-born general who secured the country's independence at the Battle of Pichincha in 1822. The first sucre coins were struck not in Ecuador — which lacked a functioning mint — but under contract at the Philadelphia Mint and later at the Heaton Mint in Birmingham. This outsourcing arrangement was common among smaller South American republics throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century, and the identifying mint marks remain the primary distinction between issues within this date range.