Portuguese escudo

The Portuguese escudo was the currency of Portugal prior to the introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999 and the removal of the escudo from circulation on 28 February 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 (e.g. "25$00" means $25.00, "100$50" means $100.50). Because of the conversion rate of 1000 réis = $1, three decimal places were initially used ($1 = 1$000).
History.
Escudo gold coinage was initially introduced in 1722 with denominations including escudo, 2, 4, and 8 escudos, and were minted generally during the 18th century.
The escudo (gold) was again introduced on 22 May 1911, after the 1910 Republican revolution, to replace the real at the rate of 1,000 "réis" to 1 "escudo". The term "mil réis" (thousand "réis") remained a colloquial synonym of "escudo" up to the 1990s. One million "réis" was called one "conto de réis", or simply one "conto". This expression passed on to the escudo, meaning 1,000$.
The escudo's value was initially set at 675$00 = 1 kg of gold. After 1914, the value of the escudo fell, being fixed in 1928 at 108$25 to the Pound Sterling. This was altered to 110$00 to the Pound Sterling in 1931. A new rate of 27$50 escudos to the U.S. dollar was established in 1940, changing to 25$00 in 1940 and 28$75 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centavos essentially worthless by its end, with fractional value coins with values such as 0$50 and 2$50 eventually withdrawn from circulation in the 1990s.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 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 Banco Nacional Ultramarino and Banco de Angola banknotes (rather than those of the Bank of Portugal used in Portugal proper), with Portuguese and in some cases local coins circulating alongside:
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 gold escudo mintage period for each denomination (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 ten-, twenty- and fifty-centavo and one-escudo coins were issued. Bronze 1 and 2 centavos and cupro-nickel 4 centavos were issued between 1917 and 1922.
In 1920, bronze 5 centavos and cupro-nickel 10 and 20 centavos were introduced, followed, in 1924, by bronze 10 and 20 centavos and aluminium-bronze 50 centavos and 1 escudo. Aluminium bronze was replaced with cupro-nickel in 1927.
In 1932, silver coins were introduced for , 5 and 10 escudos. The and 5 escudos were minted until 1951, with the 10 escudos minted until 1955 with a reduced silver content. In 1963, cupro-nickel and 5 escudos were introduced, followed by aluminium 10 centavos, bronze 20 and 50 centavos and 1 escudo in 1969. Cupro-nickel 10 and 25 escudos 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 1, 5 and 10 escudos, cupro-nickel 20 and 50 escudos, with bimetallic 100 and 200 escudos introduced in 1989 and 1991.
Coins in circulation at the time of the changeover to the euro were:
Coins ceased to be exchangeable for euro on December 31, 2002.
Another name for the 50-centavo coin was "coroa" (crown). Long after the 50-centavo coins disappeared, people still called the 2$50 coins "cinco coroas" (five crowns).
Also, people still referred to escudos at the time of the changeover in multiples of the older currency "real" (plural "réis"). Many people called the 2$50 coins "dois e quinhentos" (two and five-hundreds), referring to the correspondence 2$50 = 2500 reis. "Tostão" (plural "tostões") is yet another multiple of "real", with 1 "tostão" = 10 "réis".
Banknotes.
The Casa da Moeda issued notes for 5, 10 and 20 centavos between 1917 and 1925 whilst, between 1913 and 1922, the Banco de Portugal introduced notes for 50 centavos, 1, , 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 escudos. Fifty-centavo and 1-escudo notes ceased production in 1920, followed by , 5 and 10 escudos in 1925 and 1926. Five-thousand-escudo notes were introduced in 1942.
The last 20- and 50-escudo notes were printed dated 1978 and 1980, respectively, with 100-escudo notes being replaced by coins in 1989, the same year that the 10,000-escudo note was introduced.
Banknotes in circulation at the time of the changeover to the euro were:
The last series of escudo banknotes can be returned to the central bank Banco de Portugal 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 João de Barros, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, and Henry the Navigator.
The last 100-escudo banknote represented Fernando Pessoa, the famous Portuguese writer and poet.
Colloquial expressions.
"Conto" was the unofficial multiple of the escudo: 1 "conto" meant 1,000$00, 2 "contos" meant 2,000$00 and so on. The original expression was "conto de réis", which means "one count of réis" and referred to one million réis. Since the escudo was worth 1,000 réis (the older currency), therefore one "conto" 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 1,000 escudos.
Occasionally "paus", literally meaning "sticks", was also used to refer to the escudo ("Tens mil paus?" – "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 "escudo", the "conto", and the "pau".