20 Sucres Banco Suramericano

Banco Sur Americano was one of several private commercial banks operating in Ecuador during the period of free banking that preceded the 1927 Kemmerer Mission reforms, which abolished private note issuance and established the Banco Central del Ecuador. This 20 Sucres note dates from that final window of legitimate private circulation — within a decade, notes like this would be legally demonetized.

Pick S253 falls in the private bank series, where survival rates are uneven. Provincial bank issues from this period were often redeemed and incinerated once the central bank monopoly took hold.