History

Peso was the name of the 8 real coins circulating in Ecuador since the Spanish colonial period. In 1856, the currency was pegged to the French franc

French franc

The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...

, with 1 peso = 5 francs. From 1862, paper money was issued denominated in reales and pesos. The peso was formally adopted as the currency of Ecuador in 1871, replacing the real

Ecuadorian real

The real was the currency of Ecuador until 1871. There were no subdivisions but 16 silver reales equalled 1 gold escudo, with the 8 reales coin known as a peso.-History:...

 at a rate of 1 peso = 8 reales. It was subdivided into 100 centavo

Centavo

Centavo is a Spanish and Portuguese word, derived from the Latin centum, meaning "one hundred", and the suffix -avo, meaning "portion" or "fraction"...

s. In 1884, the peso was replaced by the sucre

Ecuadorian sucre

The sucre was the currency of Ecuador between 1884 and 2000. Its ISO code was ECS and it was subdivided into 10 decimos or 100 centavos. The sucre was named after Antonio José de Sucre.-History:...

 at par.

Coins

The only coins issued between 1871 and 1884 were 1 and 2 centavos, struck in cupro-nickel at the Heaton mint in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

. These coins continued to circulate after the sucre was adopted.

Banknotes

Paper money was only issued by private banks. The Banco Particular de Descuento I Circulación de Guayaquil issued notes between 1862 and 1866 in denominations of 2 and 4 reales, 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 pesos. The Banco del Ecuador issued denominations of 2 and 4 reales, 1, 4, 5 and 10 pesos between 1868 and 1887. Some 1 and 5 peso notes were later overprinted for use as 80 centavo and 4 sucre notes, due to a conversion rate of 5 pesos = 4 sucres for the notes of this bank.

The Banco de Circulación y Descuento issued 4 real and 1, 4, 5, 10 and 20 peso notes in the 1860s, whilst the Banco Nacional issued notes in the 1870s in denominations of 2 and 4 reales, 1, 5, 10, 20 and 100 pesos. The Banco de Quito issued notes in denominations of 2 reales, 1, 5, 10, 20 and 100 pesos between 1874 and 1880, the Banco de la Unión issued notes between 1882 and 1893 in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20 and 100 pesos, and the Banco Anglo-Ecuatoriano issued notes in 1884 for 1, 5 and 10 pesos.