Portuguese Escudo

The Portuguese escudo was the currency of Portugal from May 22nd 1911 until the introduction of the euro on January 1st 2002. The escudo was subdivided into 100 . The word derives from the scutum shield.

Amounts in escudos were written as with the as the decimal separator (for example: means , means ). Because of the conversion rate of 1,000 = , three decimal places were initially used ( = ).

History

The currency replaced by the escudo in 1911 was denominated in Portuguese reals (plural: ) and worth 1,000 . The was equivalent to 2.0539 grams fine gold from 1688 to 1800, and 1.62585 g from 1854 to 1891. Gold worth 1.6 (or ; not to be confused with the 20th-century currency) were issued from 1722 to 1800 in denominations of , 1, 2, 4 and 8 .

The escudo (gold) was again introduced on 22 May 1911, after the 1910 Republican revolution, to replace the real at the rate of 1,000 to 1 . The term (thousand ) remained a colloquial synonym of up to the 1990s. One million was called one , or simply one . This expression passed on to the escudo, meaning .

The escudo's value was initially set at = 1 kg of gold. After 1914, the value of the escudo fell, being fixed in 1928 at to £1  sterling. This was altered to to £1 stg in 1931. A new rate of escudos to the U.S. dollar was established in 1940, changing to in 1940 and in 1949.

During World War II, escudos were heavily sought after by Nazi Germany, through Swiss banks, as foreign currency to make purchases to Portugal and other neutral nations.

Inflation throughout the 20th century made centavos essentially worthless by its end, with fractional value coins with values such as and eventually withdrawn from circulation in the 1990s. With the entry of Portugal in the Eurozone, the conversion rate to the euro was set at to €1.

Territorial usage

The escudo was used in the Portuguese mainland, the Azores and Madeira, with no distinction of coins or banknotes. In Portugal's African colonies, the escudo was generally used up to independence, in the form of and banknotes (rather than those of the Bank of Portugal used in Portugal proper), with Portuguese and in some cases local coins circulating alongside:
* Angolan escudo
* Cape Verdean escudo
* Mozambican escudo
* Portuguese Guinean escudo
* São Tomé and Príncipe escudo
Of the above, only Cape Verde continues to use the escudo.

In Macau, the currency during the colonial period was, as it is today, the Macanese pataca.

Timor-Leste adopted the Portuguese Timorese escudo whilst still a Portuguese colony, having earlier used the Portuguese Timor pataca.

Portuguese India adopted the Portuguese Indian escudo for a brief time between 1958 and 1961 before Goa became a part of India; prior to that, it used the Portuguese Indian rupia.

Coins

The mintage period for the various denominations of the gold escudo (worth 1.6 or ) introduced in 1722 was different: escudo through 1821, 2 escudos through 1789, and 4 escudos through 1799. The eight-escudo coin was only struck between 1722 and 1730.

Between 1912 and 1916, silver , and and coins were issued. Bronze and and cupro-nickel coins were issued between 1917 and 1922.

In 1920, bronze 5 centavos and cupro-nickel and coins were introduced, followed, in 1924, by bronze and and aluminium-bronze and coins. Aluminium bronze was replaced with cupro-nickel in 1927.

In 1932, silver coins were introduced for , and . The and were minted until 1951, with the minted until 1955 with a reduced silver content. In 1963, cupro-nickel and were introduced, followed by aluminium , bronze and and in 1969. Cupro-nickel and were introduced in 1971 and 1977, respectively. In 1986, a new coinage was introduced which circulated until replacement by the euro. It consisted of nickel-brass , and , cupro-nickel and , with bimetallic and introduced in 1989 and 1991.

Coins in circulation at the time of the changeover to the euro were:
* (0.50 cent)
* (2.49 cents)
* (4.99 cents)
* (9.98 cents)
* (24.94 cents)
* (49.88 cents)
* (99.76 cents)
Coins ceased to be exchangeable for euros on December 31, 2002.

Another name for the coin was (crown). Long after the coins disappeared, people still called the coins ("five crowns").

Also, people still referred to escudos at the time of the changeover in multiples of the older currency (plural ). Many people called the coins (two and five-hundreds), referring to the correspondence = 2500 . (plural ) is yet another multiple of , with 1 = 10 .

Banknotes

The issued notes for , and between 1917 and 1925 whilst, between 1913 and 1922, the introduced notes for , , , , , , , , and . and notes ceased production in 1920, followed by , and in 1925 and 1926. notes were introduced in 1942.

The last and notes were printed dated 1978 and 1980, respectively, with notes being replaced by coins in 1989, the same year that the note was introduced.

Banknotes in circulation at the time of the changeover to the euro were:
* (€2.49)
* (€4.99)
* (€9.98)
* (€24.94)
* (€49.88)

The last series of escudo banknotes could be returned to the central bank and converted to euros until 28 February 2022.

Escudo banknotes celebrated notable figures from the history of Portugal. The final banknote series featured the Age of Discovery, with , , , , and Henry the Navigator.

The last banknote depicted , the famous Portuguese writer and poet.

Colloquial expressions

was the unofficial multiple of the escudo: 1 meant , 2 meant and so on. The original expression was , which means 'one count of ' and referred to one million . Since the escudo was worth 1,000 (the older currency), therefore one was the same as a thousand escudos. The expression remained in usage after the advent of the euro, albeit less often, meaning €5, roughly worth .

Occasionally , literally meaning 'sticks', was also used to refer to the escudo ("" – 'Do you have 1,000 escudos/sticks?'). During the move from escudos to euros the Portuguese had a joke saying that they had lost three currencies: the , the , and the .

See also

* Portuguese euro coins
* Economy of Portugal
* Economic history of Portugal

References

Sources

*
*

External links

Overview of the Portuguese escudo from the BBC

Portuguese escudo coins

# 1999 by law, 2002 de facto.

{{Portal bar, Europe, Money, Portugal, Numismatics

Modern obsolete currencies
Currencies replaced by the euro
Currencies of Europe
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