20 Centavos

Ecuador's shift to nickel-clad steel for this issue came as part of a broader regional trend driven by rising global nickel prices in the early 1970s — the same pressure that forced monetary authorities across Latin America to abandon higher-metal-content coinage within the same decade. The Banco Central del Ecuador had already been rationalizing its coinage infrastructure, and the cheaper blank stock made the transition straightforward.

The KM#77.2a designation distinguishes this from the earlier nickel composition, a separation that matters more to type collectors than circulation records suggest it should — the two versions saw nearly identical use in everyday commerce.