The Republic of Ecuador is located in Northwestern South America. It is named after the Equator that runs through the country (contrary to Equatorial Guinea which is close but not at). The area was part of the Inca Empire until the Spanish conquered it in the early 16th century. In 1821 Ecuador joined the Republic of Gran Colombia but seceded as early as 1830.
Ecuador inherited the Colombian Real after independence, which became the Ecuadorian Real. It was pegged to the French Franc in 1858 at 5 Francs = 8 Reales, which was the rate for many Pesos ( 8 Reales) in the region. In 1871, the Peso became the union of account, which was renamed to Sucre in 1895, after José Antonio de Sucre (a commander during the Bolivarian independence wars) who also features on a lot of Sucre coins.
The Sucre was on a silver standard and fell in value during the drop of the silver prices in the 1890's. It was pegged to the British Pound and gold standard in 1898 at a rate of 2 Shillings per Sucre (a devaluation of close to 50%). After WW1 many currencies went off the gold standard and so did the Sucre. After stabilizing it was pegged again in 1927, this time to USD at a rate of 5 Sucres/$, which was effectively another devaluation of a bit over 50%. The rate was adjusted to 5.95 in 1932 and to 13.5 in 1937.
In 1950, a rate of 15/$ was used, growing to 25/$ by 1971. This rate stayed until 1983, when the Sucre crashed to 43/$. From here the Sucre was slowly turned into confetti and by 1995 the rate was 3000/$ and in 1999 reached 25,000/$.
This urged the Ecuadorian government to completely dollarise the whole economy. All Sucre money was turned into USD at the 25,000 rate. Since then Ecuador issued Centavo coins but mainly US money is used.
I own one silver Decimo from around 1900, but for the rest my Ecuadorian collection is limited to base metal post-WW2 coins which are fairly easy to find.
I saw Ecuador made a 1 Sucre coin as part of the mint set in 2000, joint with the centavo bond coins. And I read that the Sakagawea dollar, quite unpopular in USA (as more using the bill) was more popular in Ecuador.
Administrateur du catalogue, référent de nombreuses nations antiques et de la Lorraine.
Catalogue administrator, numerous Antique nations and Lorraine referee.
Yes, in Ecuador the 1 Dollar bills are not very much used. They have many Sakagawea dollars and also some president dollars. I don't like it when countries take other countries currencies, like Ecuador or El Salvador because I love circulating currencies of small countries.
I'm not orange and also in other things I'm not a Donald at all. DonChori like Don Felipe or Doña María, por favor.
I think this part is more linked with the USA chat, I was more focusing about its use in Ecuador which is now dollarized. We should speak about in this other chat.
Administrateur du catalogue, référent de nombreuses nations antiques et de la Lorraine.
Catalogue administrator, numerous Antique nations and Lorraine referee.
There is another interesting fact about these bond coins, as the centavo coin has 2 varieties. One has the same colour as the US cent, which seems logical, but not the most known one, which is made in a yellow alloy. Interesting, right?
Administrateur du catalogue, référent de nombreuses nations antiques et de la Lorraine.
Catalogue administrator, numerous Antique nations and Lorraine referee.
