Catalog
5 Sucres
| Issuer | Banco de Descuento |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923-1925 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Sucres |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Blue and orange note with the bank title BANCO DE DESCUENTO across the top, flanked by ornate guilloche borders and the capital and company details. A central allegorical vignette shows two seated figures with a harbour scene in the background, framed by oval guilloche panels bearing the numeral 5 on each side. The place of issue GUAYAQUIL and date appear at the foot, with two manuscript signatures for the Presidente del Directorio and Gerente. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in brown on a cream ground, the reverse is dominated by a large ornate guilloche rosette at centre incorporating the bold numeral 5, encircled by the inscription BANCO DE DESCUENTO. Four smaller guilloche medallions fill the corners, each bearing the word CINCO, with the denomination numeral 5 repeated in each outer panel. |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Descuento was a private commercial bank operating out of Guayaquil, and its note-issuing activity was already living on borrowed time by 1923. Ecuador's government had been pushing toward centralized banking for years — a process that would culminate in the founding of the Banco Central del Ecuador in 1927, after which private bank circulation was systematically wound down and most outstanding notes called in for redemption.
Waterlow & Sons handled a significant share of South American private bank work during this period, and their production for the Banco de Descuento followed the firm's reliable intaglio standards. Notes from this issuer that survived the 1927 redemption did so largely by accident.