Portuguese escudo

The escudo (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɨʃˈkudu], shield; sign $;code: PTE) was the currency of Portugal prior to the introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999 and its removal from circulation on 28 February 2002. The escudo was subdivided into 100 centavos.

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 ½ escudo, 2, 4, and 8 escudos, and were minted generally during the 18th century.

The escudo (non-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$.

Contos (Eça de Queiroz)

Contos is a collection of short stories by Eça de Queiroz. It was first published in 1902, two years after his death.

Story titles

"Singularidades de uma rapariga Loura" (Peculiarities of a Fair-haired Gir) was adapted to cinema by Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira in 2009. See Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl.