East Timor centavo coins were introduced in

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-west ...

in 2003 for use alongside

United States dollar The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...

banknote A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued ...

s and

coin A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...

s, which were introduced in 2000 to replace the Indonesian rupiah following the commencement of

U.N. The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

administration. One centavo is equal to one U.S. cent. Coins issued for general circulation are in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 centavos and feature images of local plants and animals. In 2013 a 100 centavos coin was introduced followed by a 200 centavos coin in 2017. The higher value coins, equivalent to and respectively, were designed to reduce the expense of replacing low-denomination U.S. banknotes as they wear out. , East Timor does not yet issue its own banknotes. The centavo coins are minted in Lisbon by the

Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda The Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda (National Printing House, and Mint, abbreviated INCM), is the Portuguese mint and national press, owned by the Portuguese Government and administratively subordinated to the Portuguese Ministry of Finance. It is ...

, the Portuguese national mint. Unlike coins issued for the Panamanian balboa or the Ecuadorian centavo, the East Timorese coins are not identical in size to their U.S. cent counterparts.

See also