Portuguese escudo

From Freepedia

Escudo
Image:1escudo2000front.jpg	Image:1escudo2000back.jpg
1 escudo 2000

The escudo was the official currency of Portugal prior to the introduction of the euro in 1 January 1999 (euro coins and notes were not introduced until 2002). 100 centavos made up one escudo. Its symbol was the cifrão, similar to the dollar sign ($).

Amounts in escudos were written as escudos$centavos with the cifrão as the decimal separator (e.g. 25$00 means 25 escudos, 100$50 means 100 escudos and 50 centavos). When escudos first appeared in 1911, three decimal cases were used (one escudo = 1$000), because it replaced the previous currency unit (the real, plural: reis) at a 1000-fold ratio. As the real become too small to be worth mentioning, the third decimal place was dropped, though the wording "mil reis" was a colloquial synonym of "escudo" up to the 1990s.

Inflation made centavos essentially useless and centavo coins were eventually withdrawn from circulation (the 2$50 coin was the last one with a fractional value in escudos). Prior to elimination of local currencies and at the time of conversion, the exchange rate was 200.482 escudos to one euro.

Coins in circulation at the time of the changeover

• 5 Escudos (0.0249 Eur)
• 10 Escudos (0.0499 Eur)
• 20 Escudos (0.0998 Eur)
• 50 Escudos (0.2494 Eur)
• 100 Escudos (0.4988 Eur)
• 200 Escudos (0.9976 Eur)

Coins are no longer exchangeable for Euro (since 31 December 2002).

Banknotes in circulation at the time of the changeover

• 500 Escudos (2.49 Eur)
• 1000 Escudos (4.99 Eur)
• 2000 Escudos (9.98 Eur)
• 5000 Escudos (24.94 Eur)
• 10,000 Escudos (49.88 Eur)

The Banco de Portugal will exchange Escudo banknotes into euro for a period of 20 years.

The last 100-Escudo Banknote represented Fernando Pessoa, the famous Portuguese writer.

The ISO 4217 code of the escudo was PTE.

Escudo is Portuguese for "shield".

External link

• Overview of the Portuguese escudo from the BBC

Pre-euro currencies and non-euro currencies

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