50 000 Sucres

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.