The 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".
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Inflation made centavos essentially useless and centavo coins were eventually withdrawn from circulation (the 2½ escudos coin was the last one with a fractional value in escudos).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.
Coin s 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).
Banknote s in circulation at the time of the changeover
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. Its symbol was the ''
Cifrão ''
, similar to the
Dollar Sign .Amounts in escudos were written as
with the ''cifrão'' as the decimal separator (e.g.
means 25 escudos,
means 100 escudos and 50 centavos). Because of the conversion rate of 1000 réis = 1 escudo, three decimal places were initially used (one escudo =
). 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.
