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Concept
Portuguese escudo
Summary
The Portuguese escudo was the currency of Portugal from May 22, 1911, until the introduction of the euro on January 1, 2002. The escudo was subdivided into 100 centavos. The word escudo derives from the scutum shield.
Amounts in escudos were written as escudos centavos with the cifrão as the decimal separator (for example: means , means ). Because of the conversion rate of 1,000 réis = , three decimal places were initially used ( = ).
The currency replaced by the escudo in 1911 was denominated in Portuguese reals (plural: réis) and milréis worth 1,000 réis. The milréis was equivalent to 2.0539 grams fine gold from 1688 to 1800, and 1.62585 g from 1854 to 1891. Gold escudos worth 1.6 milréis (or ; not to be confused with the 20th-century currency) were issued from 1722 to 1800 in denominations of , 1, 2, 4 and 8 escudos.
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 réis to 1 escudo. The term mil réis (thousand réis) remained a colloquial synonym of escudo up to the 1990s. One million réis was called one conto de réis, or simply one conto. 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century made centavos essentially worthless by its end, with fractional value coins with values such as and eventually withdrawn from circulation in the 1990s.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.
The escudo was used in the Portuguese mainland, the Azores and Madeira, with no distinction of coins or banknotes.
Official source
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