Ecuador · Private bank of issue · Guayaquil

1 Sucre note, 1901

1 Sucre · Banco del Ecuador · 1901

One-sucre note of the Banco del Ecuador, a joint-stock company, payable in current coin. Dated Guayaquil, 1 October 1901; red serial K117574 twice.

Catalog facts

Pick reference: P#S151c
Serial number: K117574
Signatures: Two autograph signatures under GERENTES; the names are not transcribed with certainty from this photograph
Condition: Unslabbed; folds and circulating soil (private collection)
Printage: American Bank Note Company, New York. Printed date: Guayaquil, 1 October 1901. Capital S/. 2,000,000. This record does not invent a printage for the type or for serial K117574.

Face of the 1-sucre P#S151c, serial K117574: child with caduceus and fish, capital S/. 2,000,000, and Guayaquil date 1 October 1901.

Green back of the 1-sucre P#S151c, serial K117574: BANCO DEL ECUADOR and American Bank Note Company, New York imprint.

The note

The Banco del Ecuador, founded in Guayaquil in 1868, was the country’s longest-lived private issuer until the central bank was created. This 1-sucre belongs to the 1887–1926 sucre issue that the Bank Note Museum groups as Pick S151–S164; the Standard Catalog letters the 1-sucre a, b, and c. The printed date — Guayaquil, 1 October 1901 — and the K prefix match variety S151c, recorded at auction on another 1901 K serial. The face, black on a salmon and green underprint, shows an allegorical child with caduceus and fish, a sailing ship behind, capital S/. 2,000,000, the promise “VALE UN SUCRE / EN MONEDA CORRIENTE,” and two managers’ signatures. The green back centers “BANCO DEL ECUADOR” between oval 1s; at the foot, “AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY, NEW YORK.” It is not a Banco Central del Ecuador note, nor paper of the 2000–2001 exchange: it is private-bank paper, earlier than the 1926 Central Fund. This example is unslabbed and shown in circulated condition.

Scarcity and printage

The Bank Note Museum lists the Banco del Ecuador 1-sucre as PS-151 a, b, and c within the 1887–1926 sucre issue. The 1901 date with K prefix is cited as S151c; S151a covers 1887 examples. No official printage for the type or that date has been verified. This record does not invent a print figure.