Escudo
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). "Escudo" is Portuguese for "shield".

History

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The escudo was introduced in 1911, just after the 1910 republican revolution replacing the real, (which means "royal" and which plural is "reis", meaning "kings") at a rate of 1 escudo = 1000 reis. With the escudo came the centavo: it was 1/100 of the escudo, or 10 reis. Inflation made centavos essentially useless and centavo coins were eventually withdrawn from circulation (the 2$50 coin was the last one with a fractional value in escudos).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 within the European Union, and at the time of conversion, the exchange rate was 200.482 escudos to one euro.

Last Coins

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Coins in circulation at the time of the changeover

• 1 Escudo (0.0050 Eur)
• 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

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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

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The ISO 4217 code of the escudo was PTE. Its symbol was the cifrão $(\backslash mathrm\{S\}\backslash !\backslash !\backslash !\backslash Vert\; )$, similar to the dollar sign. Amounts in escudos were written as $escudos\backslash mathrm\{S\}\backslash !\backslash !\backslash !\backslash Vert\; centavos$ with the cifrão as the decimal separator (e.g. $25\backslash mathrm\{S\}\backslash !\backslash !\backslash !\backslash Vert\; 00$ means 25 escudos, $100\backslash mathrm\{S\}\backslash !\backslash !\backslash !\backslash Vert\; 50$ means 100 escudos and 50 centavos). Because of the conversion rate of 1000 reis = 1 escudo, three decimal places were initially used (one escudo = $1\backslash mathrm\{S\}\backslash !\backslash !\backslash !\backslash Vert\; 000$). The term mil reis remained a colloquial synonym of "escudo" up to the 1990s.

Another name for the 50 centavos coin was "coroa" ("crown"). Long after the 50 centavos coins disappeared, people still called the 2$50 coins "cinco coroas" ("five crowns").

A thousand escudos (previously one million reis) 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.

See also

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• Banco de Portugal

External links

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• Banco de Portugal
• Overview of the Portuguese escudo from the BBC

Economy of Portugal | History of Portugal | Currencies replaced by the Euro

Portugiesischer Escudo | Escudo portugués | Escudo portugais | Escudo portoghese | אסקודו | Escudo | Escudo | Escudo português | Portugalin escudo