Came across this oddity shopping the coin shop for world notes... http://www.banknotebank.com/coin_view_enlarge.aspx?id=922015 It appears to be a 1 sucre note from Ecuador, dated 1920... oddly though it has no signatures or serial number (it has the titles "Gerente" and "Presidente del Directorio" but no signatures next to them). Am wondering if this is a replica or counterfeit, or an error where the printing of the signatures and serials were omitted... the watermarks are present (the numeral "1" in the top left and top right corners, "Banco Sur America" on the bottom), so if it's a replica or counterfeit someone went to a lot of effort to make it (and one wonders if so, why the serials and signatures were left off). Any thoughts? Error, counterfeit, replica, or was it just meant to look this way? (Perhaps the ink faded... but it looks like nothing was ever there, and it's in crisp uncirculated condition.) Or some other situation I haven't thought of? This only cost me a dollar so if it's a fake I'm not out much anyway, and it's still an interesting piece (love the condor on front and Columbus's ships on the back!), but I'm curious as to just what I have here. Any input welcome on this one.
Have looked at other 1920 Ecuadorian notes... all of which have no signatures or serials... am guessing (correct me if I'm wrong here) that they were printed without them and were expected to be hand signed and numbered when issued, and I just have one that was never issued and thus not signed. Am I close? Or perhaps they were intended to be signed and nobody ever bothered, or there was never an intent to sign them (the engraver had places for them to sign and number, but Ecuador chose not to?) Any ideas here?
They were ordered from the printer, and they expected to do the signatures and serials there in the bank. They were kept as remainders and were never used, if memory serves correct they had a devaluation of their currency and came out with a new one later on, the Sucre. They used the Sucre until recently, like 2000 when they dumped it and adopted the US Dollar. Costa Rica is another country with lots of unissued remainders w/o serials and signatures, most of them are from the Banco AngloCostaRicense(sp?) and are actually very colourful and lovely notes.
Thanks... was guessing something along those lines but am glad for the confirmation. Looked it up, and Ecuador used the sucre from 1884 (changing the name of the Ecuadorian peso to the sucre) until 2000 when they discontinued the sucre, making the US dollar legal tender in Ecuador. Am guessing this particular note was an unusued leftover that never got issued due to the devaluation of the sucre in the 1930's... by which point this denomination was too low to be useful anymore. They made many attempts to stabilize the sucre over the years... in 1999 had reached the point where it was trading at about 25,000 sucres to the US dollar... then in 2000 they finally gave up, abandoned the currency, and declared the US dollar legal tender in Ecuador. (is worth noting that unlike in the US, the Sacagawea dollar actually circulates a lot in Ecuador, and is preferred to paper $1 bills!) Anyway great piece of art and history and well worth the dollar I spent for it!
