El Salvador colón
From Freepedia
The colón (named after Christopher Columbus, known as Cristóbal Colón in Spanish) is the former currency of El Salvador. It has been phased out, and replaced by the American Dollar (USD). It is also the name of Costa Rica's currency (see Costa Rican colón). Its ISO 4217 code is SVC.
The colón is divided into 100 centavos. The plural is colones in Spanish, but English-speakers often say colons instead. It had been pegged to the US dollar at an exchange rate of 8.75 colónes to the dollar since 2001, prior to the complete dollarization of the economy.
At the time that the dollar was adopted, banknotes being produced were 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, and 200 colones.
History
The early inhabitants of what is now El Salvador used the cacao bean as a currency, counting in cacoa equal to 400 beans. The Spanish introduced the real, but the cacoa continued in use at the rate of 200 beans to the real. During the days of the United States of Central America, the currency in use was the peso (equal to 8 reales). In 1883, the currency was decimalized, with the peso revalued at 10 reales.
On August 28, 1892, the Salvadoran mint was established. On October 1 of that same year, the government changed the name to colón to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America. At the time, the value was set at 0.5 US dollars.
Current CRC exchange rates
AUD | CAD | EUR | GBP | INR | NZD | USD
| Currencies of The Americas | |
|---|---|
| North | Bermuda dollar | Canadian dollar | Danish krone (Greenland) | Euro (Saint-Pierre et Miquelon) | Mexican peso | US dollar |
| Central | Belize dollar | Costa Rican colón | Guatemalan quetzal | Honduran lempira | Nicaraguan córdoba | Panamanian balboa | US dollar (El Salvador) |
| Caribbean | Aruban florin | Bahamian dollar | Barbadian dollar | Cayman dollar | Cuban peso | Cuban convertible peso | Dominican peso | East Caribbean dollar | Euro (Guadeloupe, Martinique) | Haitian gourde | Jamaican dollar | Netherlands Antilles florin | Trinidad and Tobago dollar |
| South | Argentine peso | Bolivian boliviano | Brazilian real | Chilean peso | Colombian peso | Euro (French Guiana) | Falkland pound | Guyanese dollar | Paraguayan guaraní | Peruvian nuevo sol | Suriname dollar | US dollar (Ecuador) | Uruguayan peso | Venezuelan bolívar
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