Ecuador's early republican coinage was struck at the Quito mint, which had operated under Spanish colonial administration since the sixteenth century and continued producing gold under the new republic with much of the same equipment and workforce. The transition from monarchical to republican imagery was politically charged — Quito had been a royalist stronghold during the independence wars, and the mint's output in this period reflects an institution still finding its footing under a government that had only formally separated from Gran Colombia in 1830.
The Quito mint was shuttered permanently in 1862, making this series among the last gold coinage struck there.
Ecuador's early republican coinage was struck at the Quito mint, which had operated under Spanish colonial administration since the sixteenth century and continued producing gold under the new republic with much of the same equipment and workforce. The transition from monarchical to republican imagery was politically charged — Quito had been a royalist stronghold during the independence wars, and the mint's output in this period reflects an institution still finding its footing under a government that had only formally separated from Gran Colombia in 1830.
The Quito mint was shuttered permanently in 1862, making this series among the last gold coinage struck there.