Portuguese escudo
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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. "Escudo" is Portuguese for "shield".
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History
The escudo was introduced in 1911, replacing the real at a rate of 1000 réis =1 escudo. Inflation made centavos essentially useless and centavo coins were eventually withdrawn from circulation (the 2½ escudos coin was the last one with a fractional value in escudos).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.
Last Coins
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).
Last Banknotes
Banknotes in circulation at the time of the changeover
- 500 Escudos, João de Barros (2.49 Eur)
- 1000 Escudos, Pedro Alvares Cabral (4.99 Eur)
- 2000 Escudos, Bartolomeu Dias (9.98 Eur)
- 5000 Escudos, Vasco da Gama (24.94 Eur)
- 10,000 Escudos, Henry the Navigator (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.
Nomenclature
The ISO 4217 code of the escudo was PTE. Its symbol was the cifrão <math>(\mathrm{S}\!\!\!\Vert )</math>, similar to the dollar sign.Amounts in escudos were written as <math>escudos\mathrm{S}\!\!\!\Vert centavos</math> with the cifrão as the decimal separator (e.g. <math>25\mathrm{S}\!\!\!\Vert 00</math> means 25 escudos, <math>100\mathrm{S}\!\!\!\Vert 50</math> means 100 escudos and 50 centavos). Because of the conversion rate of 1000 réis = 1 escudo, three decimal places were initially used (one escudo = <math>1\mathrm{S}\!\!\!\Vert 000</math>). The term mil reis remained a colloquial synonym of "escudo" up to the 1990s. A thousand escudos (previously one million réis) was called "conto de reis". Interestingly, this unit abolished, almost a hundred years ago, is still in use (though declining), at the rate 5€ = 1 conto de reis (an approximation to the actual rate of 4.98798€ = 1 conto). This easy conversion was partly to blame for the increases in some low-denomination prices following the euro changeover.
External link
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Template:PreEuroCurrenciesde:Portugiesischer Escudo es:Escudo portugués fr:Escudo portugais it:Escudo portoghese he:אסקודו nl:Escudo pl:Escudo pt:Escudo português fi:Portugalin escudo