Sol (currency)
From Freepedia
The sol (plural: "soles") (S/.) is the monetary unit (currency) of Peru. The nuevo sol ("new sol") was introduced in 1991 to replace the highly inflated inti that the country had adopted in mid-1985 because the old sol was inflated beyond use. The ISO 4217 currency code is PEN (the old sol had the code PEH, and the inti was the PEI).
The name derives from historical use and divination of the sun (sol, in Spanish) as a symbol of power, also as a (not-so-)subtle way of connecting the new currency (nuevo sol) to the old inti currency, which was named after Inti, the Sun God of the Incas, which in turn was derived from the old sol, derived from Latin Solidus, but misinterpreted as the homophonous word for Sun.
- 1 nuevo sol = 100 céntimos
Coins in circulation: 1 (see note), 5, 10, 20, and 50 céntimos; 1, 2, and 5 nuevos soles.
Notes in circulation: 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 nuevos soles.
Exchange rates as of July 2005:
- 1 U.S. dollar = approximately 3.25 nuevos soles
- 1 euro = approximately 3.94 nuevos soles
NOTE: While legally still in circulation, the 1 céntimo coin is hardly used anymore. The BCRP (Central Reserve Bank) has stopped minting of these coins and final costs in establishments are rounded down to the previous 5 céntimos since most do not hold 1 céntimo coins (in some, this is even rounded down to the previous 10 céntimos). This is largely because most cash registers have enough compartments to hold six or seven different coin denominations, so the smallest are discarded.
Current PEN 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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