Catalog
50 000 Sucres
| Issuer | Banco Central del Ecuador |
|---|---|
| Year | 1995-1999 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Sucre (1884-2000) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | An intaglio portrait vignette of Eloy Alfaro (1842–1912), statesman and two-time President of Ecuador, is centred against a multicolour guilloche underprint. The issuer's name and denomination are rendered in letterpress inscriptions framing the central design, with the value stated in both numerals and words. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The National Coat of Arms of Ecuador occupies the central vignette, set within an ornate multicolour guilloche surround of radiating orange, blue, and red bands. The denomination numeral '50000' appears in large intaglio figures to the left, with repeating corner numerals and a security rosette element to the upper right. The issuer's title 'BANCO CENTRAL DEL ECUADOR' is inscribed across the top panel, with 'CINCUENTA MIL SUCRES' in a dark cartouche along the lower border. |
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| Comments |
Ecuador's monetary crisis of the late 1990s made this high denomination feel almost quaint within a few years of issue. Inflation had been grinding through the sucre for over a decade — the 50,000 sucre note, unthinkable as a single denomination in earlier generations, was simply keeping pace with a currency in structural retreat. By January 2000, Ecuador abandoned the sucre entirely and dollarized, the first Latin American nation to do so under active economic duress rather than by initial design.
The print run of just over 12 million is relatively modest for a note that circulated during a hyperinflationary spiral, suggesting significant quantities were absorbed quickly and destroyed in the dollarization exchange.