Catalog
2 Sucres
| Issuer | Banco del Ecuador |
|---|---|
| Year | 1897 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in brown and black tones, centred on a large intaglio vignette of a seated classical female figure resting beside a chest, with sailing ships on the sea in the background. The bank title BANCO DEL ECUADOR arches across the top in bold letterpress, flanked by the numeral 2 in large ornate counters at each corner, with intricate guilloche underprint framing the entire face. The lower centre bears the panel VALE DOS SUCRES, with the place and date inscription GUAYAQUIL, DICIEMBRE 19 DE 1897, and a red SPECIMEN overprint across the signature area. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in green, with a complex symmetrical guilloche pattern of interlocking rosettes and lathe-work filling the entire field. The bank name BANCO DEL ECUADOR GUAYAQUIL is lettered in white relief at the centre, flanked by the numeral 2 in white on each side, with the printer's imprint American Bank Note Co. New York in small text at the lower centre. |
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| Comments |
Banco del Ecuador was a private commercial bank operating under Ecuador's free banking period, when multiple institutions held the legal right to issue their own currency. This arrangement collapsed after 1899 when the government began consolidating note-issuing privileges, making the late 1890s output from Banco del Ecuador among the final chapters of that pluralistic system.
The American Bank Note Company produced this plate in New York, as they did for the overwhelming majority of Latin American private bank issues of the period. ABNC's contracts with Ecuadorian banks were extensive throughout the 1880s and 1890s, and the S154 series shares plate infrastructure with other denominations from the same institution.
The "A" suffix in the Pick reference distinguishes a specific signature or date variety within the broader S154 type.