Since March 2002, the shield has expired. At the time, “there were 15.1 million escudos in circulation, valued at 158.6 million euros. Almost 20 years later, only 24% of securities and 40% of the value returned to the central bank vaults, ”writes TSF based on data from the Bank of Portugal.
In Portugal, the deadline for exchanging the last escudo banknotes for the euro is March 1, 2022.
Until that date, you can still exchange banknotes for 10,000 escudos, known as the Infante D. Enrique, 5,000 escudos (with a portrait of Vasco da Gama imprinted), 2,000 escudos with the image of Bartolom eu Dias, thousands of escudos with the face of Pedro lvarez Cabral and finally, 500 escudos featuring Juan de Barrus.
The last deadline for converting cash from escudos to euros was January 2018. In December last year, Banco de Portugal issued a final warning, calculating that 46.6 million euros had not yet been exchanged at that time.
At the Banco de Portugal treasury, you can exchange non-standard escudos and damaged euro banknotes, as well as exchange euro banknotes and coins.
If it is not possible to go to the Treasury in person to exchange non-standard escudos and damaged euro banknotes, you can mail them to Banco de Portugal via Special Declared Value Registered Mail.
Spain and Portugal joined the Economic and Monetary Union in 1999 with the official introduction of the euro in 2002.
