Catalog
8 Escudos
| Issuer | Casa de Moneda, Quito, Ecuador |
|---|---|
| Year | 1847-1856 |
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| Orientation | Coin alignment ↑↓ |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A bare, unadorned bust of Simón Bolívar faces left, rendered in high relief with finely detailed hair swept back from the forehead in the neoclassical style. The name BOLIVAR appears in small letters at the truncation of the neck. The surrounding legend EL PODER EN LA CONSTITUCION arcs around the upper periphery, while the date 1850 and the fineness notation 21Q.s are positioned in the lower field, all separated by a raised dot. The design is contained within a plain inner border and an outer reeded rim. |
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| Mint | QUITO Casa de Moneda, Quito, Ecuador |
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| Additional information |
Quito's mint had a troubled relationship with gold coinage. The Casa de Moneda there was one of the oldest mints in South America — established by the Spanish crown in 1572 — but by the mid-nineteenth century it was operating under the newly independent Ecuadorian state with chronically inconsistent bullion supplies and recurring disputes over assayer accountability. The 8 escudos pieces from this window frequently show subtle weight variations that fall just inside tolerance, a known consequence of those supply disruptions.
Ecuador abandoned the escudo system entirely in 1856 in favor of the peso decimal coinage, making this the final type struck at Quito in the colonial denomination structure.