2 Sucres

Banco del Ecuador was a private commercial bank headquartered in Guayaquil, not a central bank — Ecuador would not establish a proper central bank until 1927, when the Banco Central del Ecuador was created following a Kemmerer Mission reform that stripped institutions like this one of their note-issuing privileges. This note predates that transition by sixteen years, issued during a period when several competing Ecuadorian banks simultaneously held concession rights to circulate paper currency, a situation that created chronic confusion over convertibility and redemption.

ABNC printed extensively for Ecuadorian private banks in this period, often recycling plate elements across institutions and denominations. Whether this specific issue shares plate geometry with other Banco del Ecuador ABNC notes from the same run is worth checking against the S255 and S257 entries.