100 Pesos

The Banco de Quito was one of several Ecuadorian provincial banks granted note-issuing rights under the 1871 banking law — a period when Ecuador had no central bank and private institutions filled the void, each issuing their own circulating currency backed by specie reserves of wildly varying credibility. The Banco de Quito was among the more solvent of these, though its notes were not universally accepted outside the capital.

American Bank Note Company's involvement was a deliberate credibility signal. Ecuadorian banks of this period frequently contracted ABNC precisely because the imprint carried weight with a note-handling public that had seen too many locally printed issues fail.