Escudo

The escudo was the official currency of Portugal prior to the introduction of the euro in January 1, 1999 (euro coins and notes were not introduced until 2002). 100 centavos made up one escudo. Its symbol was the cifrão, similar to a dollar sign ($) but with two vertical bars instead of one. Amounts in escudos were written as escudos$centavos with the cifrão as the decimal separator (e.g. 25$00 means 25 escudos, 100$50 means 100 escudos and 50 centavos). Inflation made centavos essentially useless and centavo coins were eventually withdrawn from circulation (the 2$50 coin was the last one with a fractional value in escudos).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 and at the time of conversion, the exchange rate was 200.482 escudos to one euro.

Coins in circulation at the time of the changeover

• 5 Escudo (2.49 Eurocents)
• 10 Escudo (4.99 Eurocents)
• 20 Escudo (9.98 Eurocents)
• 50 Escudo (24.94 Eurocents)
• 100 Escudo (49.88 Eurocents)
• 200 Escudo (99.76 Eurocents)

Coins are no longer exchangeable for Euro.

Banknotes in circulation at the time of the changeover

• 500 Escudo (2.49 Euro)
• 1000 Escudo (4.99 Euro)
• 2000 Escudo (9.98 Euro)
• 5000 Escudo (24.94 Euro)
• 10,000 Escudo (49.88 Euro)

The last 100-Escudo Banknote represented Fernando Pessoa, the famous Portuguese writer.

The ISO 4217 code of the escudo was PTE.

Escudo is Portuguese for "shield".

The official currency of Cape Verde (Portuguese: Cabo Verde), a former Portuguese colony, is also called Escudo. Its ISO 4217 code is CVE. Since 1999, the Cape Verde escudo was tied to the Portuguese escudo (CVE 1 = PTE 0.55; PTE 1 = CVE 1.8182), and therefore to the euro (EUR 1 = CVE 110.265)