Gibraltar pound & Jersey pound
U.S Dollar
Name of Currency: Cape Verdean escudo
Country / countries used: Cape Verde
Symbol: $, Esc
Brief history:
The 'escudo' was introduced as the currency of Cape Verde in 1914 replacing its predecessor the Cape Verdean real. To start with only bank notes were in circulation and the Portuguese real were used as coinage until 1930 when their own coins were issued; 5, 10, 20 and 50 centavos and a 1 escudo then in 1953 they added the 2 ½, 5,10 and 50 escudos coins. As time went on as did inflation and the smaller coins became extinct leaving the lowest coin in production the 1 escudo.
After the country's independence in 1975 the Verdean escudo fell dramatically from 1977 to 1984, depreciating in value by almost 70 per cent, whereas before independence they were always valued at the same as the Portuguese escudo. In a bid to avoid any further drops in the currency's value, a deal was made in 1998 between Cape Verde and Portugal, pegging the value of the Verdean escudo at a value of 1 Portuguese escudo = 0.55 Cape Verdean escudo. The subsequent change from the Portuguese escudo to the euro meant that the Cape Verdean escudo was now capped at a value of 1 euro = 110265 (the cifrao is used as a decimal separator when writing figures in the Cape Verdean escudo).