Portuguese escudo
The Portuguese escudo was the currency of Portugal from 1911 until 2002. The escudo replaced the real at a rate of 1000 real to one escudo following a Republican revolution which took place in 1910. The escudo often used ‘$’ to denominate escudos alongside centavos, which was the subunit of the escudo – similar to British pounds and pence or US dollars and cents. For example, 675$00 would be $675 escudo, while 43$87 would be $43 escudos and 87 centavos.
Because Portugal remained neutral during World War Two, the escudo was prized by Nazi Germany as a foreign currency reserve which could be used to make purchases from Portugal and other neutral nations.
Following the war however, the escudo was plagued by inflation which effectively made centavos worthless, with the Banco de Portugal (National Bank of Portugal) electing to print higher denominations of the escudo including 500$, 1000$, 5000$ and 10,000$. When Portugal joined the eurozone in 1999, the conversion rate of escudo to euros was set at 200$482 to one. As with other currencies on this list, there was a transition period of three years until 2002, during which the escudo and euro were used alongside each other in Portugal.
