Since March 2002 the shield has expired. At that time “there were 15.1 million escudo notes in circulation with a value of 158.6 million euros. After nearly 20 years, only 24% of the notes and 40% of their value have returned to the central bank’s vaults,” TSF writes, based on data from the Bank of Portugal.
In Portugal, the deadline for exchanging escudos euro banknotes is March 1, 2022.
To this date, you can still exchange banknotes of 10,000 escudos, known as a statue of Infante D. Henrique, 5,000 escudos (on which the image of Vasco da Gama is stamped), 2,000 escudos, with a Bartolome or Dias doll, a thousand escudos, with The colored face of Pedro Alvares Cabral, and finally 500 escudos, with a Joao de Barros doll.
The last deadline for transferring cash from escudos to euros was in January 2018. In December of the previous year, Banco de Portugal issued the last warning, having estimated that at that time there were 46.6 million euros that had not been exchanged.
At the Banco de Portugal treasury bills, it is possible to exchange non-descript escudo banknotes and banknotes for damaged euros, as well as exchange banknotes and coins for euros.
If it is not possible to personally go to the vaults to exchange non-prescribed banknotes and damaged euro banknotes, then you can send them to Banco de Portugal by mail through the “Registered Mail with Special Declared Value service”.
Spain and Portugal joined the Economic and Monetary Union in 1999, with the official entry of the euro in 2002.
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