The peso was the currency of

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ), ...

from 1975 to 1997 and was divided into 100 centavos. It replaced the

escudo The escudo ( Portuguese: 'shield') is a unit of currency historically used in Portugal and its colonies in South America, Asia, and Africa. It was originally worth 16 silver . The Cape Verdean escudo and the former Portuguese escudo (PTE), eac ...

at par. In 1997, in an effort to stop high inflation, Guinea-Bissau adopted the

CFA franc The CFA franc (french: franc CFA, , Franc of the Financial Community of Africa, originally Franc of the French Colonies in Africa, or colloquially ; abbreviation: F.CFA) is the name of two currencies, the West African CFA franc, used in eight We ...

, using a conversion rate of 65 pesos to the franc.

History

The peso replaced the escudo in 1975. It was originally equivalent to the

Portuguese escudo The Portuguese escudo was the currency of Portugal from May 22nd 1911 until the introduction of the euro on January 1st 2002. The escudo was subdivided into 100 . The word derives from the scutum shield. Amounts in escudos were written as w ...

Historical exchange rates

*1975–1976: fixed exchange rate with the Portuguese escudo at parity. *1976–1977: fixed exchange rate with the Portuguese escudo (0.85 GWP = 1.00 PTE) *1977–1978: fixed exchange rate with the Portuguese escudo (0.74 GWP = 1.00 PTE) *26 May 1978–22 December 1983: fixed exchange rate with the

special drawing rights Special drawing rights (SDRs, code ) are supplementary foreign exchange reserve assets defined and maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). SDRs are units of account for the IMF, and not a currency ''per se''. They represent a claim ...

at a rate of 44 pesos per SDR. *23 December 1983: Peso devalued to 88 per SDR. *4 May 1987: Peso devalued to 650 per USD. On December 1996, continued rapid inflation had eroded the value of the peso so that the exchange rate had become 225 pesos per Portuguese escudo.

Coins

Coins were issued in denominations of 50 centavos, 1, , 5 and 20 pesos.

Banknotes

Banknotes in denominations of 50, 100, and 500 pesos dated 24-9-1975 (24 September 1975) were issued on 2 March 1976. 1000 peso notes were introduced in 1978, followed by 5000 pesos notes in 1984 and 10,000 pesos notes in 1990.

References

External links

The Bank Notes of Guinea-Bissau
by

Peter Symes Peter J. Symes (born 1957) is an Australian researcher into paper money. He is the author of many articles published in the ''International Bank Note Society Journal'' and of several books. From mid 2004 to mid 2006 and from mid 2008 to mid 2012 ...