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The escudo was the official currency of Portugal prior to the introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999 and was removed from circulation on 28 February 2002. "Escudo" is Portuguese for "shield".

The escudo was introduced in 1911, after the 1910 Republican revolution, to replace the real, (in English: "royal", plural: "réis") at the rate of 1000 réis to one escudo. With the escudo came the centavo, as 1/100 of one escudo, or 10 réis.

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 réis (thousand réis) 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).

One million réis was called one conto de réis or simply one conto. This expression passed on to the escudo, meaning 1000 escudos, and is still in use today, meaning 5 euro (1000 escudos = 4.99 € = 1 conto).

Inflation throughout the 20th Century made centavos essentially useless by the end, with fractional value coins with values such as $50 or 2$50 eventually withdrawn from circulation in the 1990s.

With the entry of Portugal in the Eurozone, the conversion rate to the euro was set at 200.482 escudos to one euro.

At the time of the changeover to the euro, in 2002, there were coins of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 escudos in circulation. Coins ceased to be convertible to euro on 31 December 2002. Banknotes in circulation were in denominations of 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10,000 escudos. Banknotes can still be returned to central bank Banco de Portugal and converted to euro until 28 February 2022.

Escudo banknotes celebrated notable figures from the History of Portugal. The final banknote series featured the Age of Discovery, with João de Barros, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, and Henry the Navigator.

[edit] See also

• Portuguese euro coins

[edit] External links

• Overview of the Portuguese escudo from the BBC

Preceded by: Portuguese real

Portuguese currency 1911-1999<ref>1999 by law, 2002 de facto</ref>

Succeeded by: Euro

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