The Macanese pataca or Macau pataca ( zh, t=澳門元, cy=Oumún yùhn; ;

sign A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or me ...

: MOP$; ISO code: MOP) is the currency of

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

. It is subdivided into 100 ''avos'' (; ''sin''), with 10 avos called ''ho'' () in

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

. Macau has a currency board system under which the pataca is 100 per cent backed by

foreign exchange reserves Foreign exchange reserves (also called forex reserves or FX reserves) are cash and other reserve assets such as gold and silver held by a central bank or other monetary authority that are primarily available to balance payments of the country, ...

, in this case currently the

Hong Kong dollar The Hong Kong dollar (, sign: HK$; code: HKD) is the official currency of Hong Kong. It is divided into 100 cents. Historically, it was also divided into 1000 mils. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the monetary authority of Hong Kong an ...

(itself backed by the

United States dollar The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

). Moreover, the currency board, Monetary Authority of Macau (AMCM), has a statutory obligation to issue and redeem Macau pataca on demand against the Hong Kong dollar at a fixed exchange rate of HK$1 = MOP 1.03, and without limit.

History

The

Spanish dollar The Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight (, , , or ), is a silver coin of approximately diameter worth eight Spanish reales. It was minted in the Spanish Empire following a monetary reform in 1497 with content fine silver. It w ...

was in wide use in Asia and the Americas between the 16th to 20th centuries, and was imported by China in large quantities. They were typically minted in Mexico and then brought to the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

as part of the

Spanish East Indies The Spanish East Indies were the colonies of the Spanish Empire in Asia-Pacific, Asia and Oceania from 1565 to 1901, governed through the Captaincy General of the Philippines, captaincy general in Manila for the Monarchy of Spain, Spanish Crown, i ...

through the

Manila-Acapulco galleon trade The Manila galleon (; ) refers to the Spanish trading ships that linked the Philippines in the Spanish East Indies to Mexico (New Spain), across the Pacific Ocean. The ships made one or two round-trip voyages per year between the ports of Man ...

to be traded and circulated across the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

. It was known to the Portuguese as the '' pataca mexicana''. At the end of the 19th century various versions of this silver dollar or ''pataca'' were in use in Macau, in the form of

Spanish dollars The Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight (, , , or ), is a silver coin of approximately diameter worth eight Spanish reales. It was minted in the Spanish Empire following a monetary reform in 1497 with content fine silver. It wa ...

, the British trade dollars of

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements () were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under control of the ...

, as well as the silver dollars and fractional coinage of the neighbouring province of Canton. In 1894, the pataca was introduced as a

unit of account In economics, unit of account is one of the functions of money. A unit of account is a standard numerical monetary unit of measurement of the market value of goods, services, and other transactions. Also known as a "measure" or "standard" of ...

Portuguese Macau Macau was under Portuguese Empire, Portuguese rule from the establishment of the first official Portuguese settlement in 1557 until its Handover of Macau, handover to China in 1999. It comprised the Municipality of Macau and the Municipality of ...

and

Portuguese Timor Portuguese Timor () was a Portuguese colony on the territory of present-day East Timor from 1702 until 1975. During most of this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Dutch East Indies. The first Europeans to arrive in the regio ...

at a rate of 1 pataca = 450 ''

réis The first official currency of Brazil was the real (pronounced ; pl. ''réis''), with the symbol Rs$. As the currency of the Portuguese empire, it was in use in Brazil from the earliest days of the colonial period, and remained in use until 1942 ...

'', equivalent to the

Mexican peso The Mexican peso (Currency symbol, symbol: $; ISO 4217, currency code: MXN; also abbreviated Mex$ to distinguish it from peso, other peso-denominated currencies; referred to as the peso, Mexican peso, or colloquially varo) is the official curre ...

or Philippine peso. In 1901, it was decided to have a uniquely Macau currency, and for that purpose, the

Banco Nacional Ultramarino Banco Nacional Ultramarino (, BNU; ; ) is a Macau banking and financial services corporation. It was historically a Portuguese bank with operations throughout the world, especially in Portugal's former overseas provinces. It ceased existence as ...

was granted exclusive rights to issue legal tender banknotes that were to be denominated in patacas. On January 27, 1906, pataca notes in denominations of 1, 5, 50 and 100 were introduced and all foreign coinage was outlawed, the idea being to make the pataca paper notes the sole legal tender currency in Macau. However, the Chinese, being so accustomed to using silver for barter, were suspicious of this new paper money, and as such, the paper pataca always circulated at a discount in relation to the silver dollar coins. Conversely, a similar action at exactly the same time in the

, and for the same purpose, had the different effect of putting the new

Straits dollar The Straits dollar was the currency of the Straits Settlements from 1898 until 1939. At the same time, it was also used in the Federated Malay States, the Unfederated Malay States, Kingdom of Sarawak, Brunei, and British North Borneo. Histor ...

into the gold exchange standard. Hence both the Macau pataca and the Straits dollar were launched at a sterling value of 2 shillings and 4 pence, but where the Straits dollar remained at that value until the 1960s, the Macau pataca fluctuated with the value of silver, just like the Hong Kong unit. In 1935, when Hong Kong and China abandoned the silver standard, the Hong Kong unit was pegged to sterling at a rate of 1 shilling and 3 pence, while the Macau pataca was pegged to the Portuguese escudo at a rate of MOP 1 = Esc 5$50. This meant that the Macau pataca was worth only 1 shilling and was therefore at a discount of 3 pence in relation to the Hong Kong unit. The first exclusively Macau coinage was not introduced until the year 1952, which happened to be the year after the last pataca fractional coins were minted for

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

. In that year in Macau, denominations below 10 patacas were replaced by coins. In 1980, the Macau government set up the Issuing Institute of Macau (Instituto Emissor de Macau; abbr. as IEM), which was given the monopoly right to issue pataca notes. The BNU became the IEM's agent bank and continued to issue banknotes. On agreement with the BNU on October 16, 1995, the Macau branch of

Bank of China The Bank of China (BOC; ; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Banco da China'') is a state-owned Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Beijing, Beijing, China. It is one of ...

(, ) became the second note-issuing bank. The authority to issue patacas was transferred to the Monetary Authority of Macau.

Coins

Coins were not issued for use in Macau until 1952, with the 20 cent coin of

Canton Province ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

circulating. In 1952, bronze 5 and 10 avos, cupro-nickel 50 avos and .720 fineness silver 1 and 5 patacas were introduced. Nickel-brass replaced bronze in 1967, including the last issue of 5 avos. Nickel replaced silver in the 1 pataca in 1968. In 1971, a final (.650 fineness) silver issue of 5 patacas was produced. File:10 Avos 1968 Macao.jpg, 10 avos, 1968 File:50 Avos 1978 Macao.jpg, 50 avos, 1978 File:Macau-1Pataca-1952.jpg, 1 pataca, 1952 File:Macau-5Patacas-1971.jpg, 5 patacas, 1971 Brass 10, 20 and 50 avos and cupro-nickel 1 and 5 patacas were introduced in 1982. The 20 avos and 5 patacas became

dodecagon In geometry, a dodecagon, or 12-gon, is any twelve-sided polygon. Regular dodecagon A regular polygon, regular dodecagon is a figure with sides of the same length and internal angles of the same size. It has twelve lines of reflective symmetry ...

al in 1993 and 1992, respectively, whilst a bimetallic 10 patacas was introduced in 1997 and a

cupronickel Cupronickel or copper–nickel (CuNi) is an alloy of copper with nickel, usually along with small quantities of other metals added for strength, such as iron and manganese. The copper content typically varies from 60 to 90 percent. ( Monel is a n ...

2 patacas in 1998. Coins are issued by the Monetary Authority of Macau. File:10 Avos 1988 Macao.jpg, 10 avos, 1988 File:20 Avos 1982 Macao.jpg, 20 avos, 1982 File:50 Avos 1982 Macao.jpg, 50 avos, 1982

Banknotes

In a similar arrangement to the issue of banknotes in Hong Kong, Macau's banknotes are not issued by a central bank or monetary authority but by two

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make a profit. It can also refer to a bank or a division of a larger bank that deals with whol ...

s, the

and the

. Owing to Macau's Portuguese colonial past, banknotes are printed in Portuguese as well as Chinese, including the name of the Bank of China which is written as both "" and "". Following the initial issues of pataca banknotes in 1906, the new currency was supplemented the following year by 10 and 25 pataca notes, and in February 1920, 5, 10 and 50 avo notes were added. In 1923, the Banco Vui Hang introduced 10 pataca notes which stated that they were backed by Cantonese 20 cent coins. These notes were followed until 1934 by cashier's cheques issued by various banks in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,000 dollars, presumably equivalent to the pataca. The BNU issues were augmented by 1 and 20 avo notes in 1942, and in 1944, 500 pataca notes were introduced. Also in 1944, further cashier's cheques were issued, denominated 1,000 yuan and NC$5,000. The 25 pataca note was discontinued after 1958. On August 8, 1988, BNU issued a 1000 pataca banknote, the highest value banknote yet. Because 8 in Chinese (''ba'') is similar to "getting rich" (''fa''; ), this unique date, which occurs only once per century, gives the note a special meaning. Another feature is the replacement of the

coat of arms of Portugal The coat of arms of Portugal also referred, in Portugal, as the ''quinas'' are the main heraldic insignia of Portugal. They are used by the Portuguese Armed Forces, military and the Government of Portugal, government, including the courts. Ther ...

with BNU's logo, shedding a political symbol in the prospect of reunification with China. In 1995, the

introduced notes in denominations of 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 patacas. Both the BNU and Bank of China introduced 20 pataca notes in 1996.

Current issue

Banknotes are currently issued in denominations of 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 patacas. The current series of BNU banknotes was issued in 2005, while the Bank of China notes were last issued between 1995 and 2003. The dimensions of the banknotes are the same as that of Hong Kong banknotes worth the corresponding number of dollars. On December 20, 1999, the day Macau was retroceded to China, banknotes of all values (except for 10 patacas) by both banks were reissued with that date. On January 5, 2009, the Monetary Authority of Macau announced a new series of banknotes, dated 2008, released by the Bank of China. In 2024, both the Banco Nacional Ultramarino and the Bank of China (Macau) are set to introduce a new series of notes. The denomination structure is the same as previous issues, but the notes come with advanced security features and include features accessible for those with visual impairments.

Commemorative issues

In 2008, the Macau branch of the

issued four million 20 pataca banknotes in commemoration of the 29th Summer Olympic Games in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. In 2012, the

and Banco da China issued ten million 10 pataca banknotes to commemorate the Year of the Dragon, and from 2012 to 2023, the Banco National Ultramarino and the Banco da China are each authorized to issue a maximum number of 20 million special notes with the face value of 10 patacas to mark each lunar new year. The Bank of China also issued a 100 pataca banknote to commemorate its centennial anniversary. In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the transfer of Macau to the People's Republic of China, the Banco Nacional Ultramarino and the Banco da China issued five million 20 patacas banknotes. The front side of the notes feature the 7-ton gilded bronze sculpture "Lotus Flower In Full Bloom", representing the prosperity of Macau. The back side of the notes feature the

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong may refer to: Places *Høng, a town in Denmark *Hong Kong, a city and a special administrative region in China *Hong, Nigeria *Hong River in China and Vietnam *Lake Hong in China Surnames *Hong (Chinese surname) *Hong (Korean surname) O ...

Exchange rate

Despite the fact that the pataca is the official currency of Macau, most of the money in circulation in the region is actually Hong Kong dollars. Patacas accounted for only 29.9% of Macau's money supply at the end of 1998. The exchange rate is pegged and is approximately MOP 1.03 for HK$1, and

banknotes and coins are generally accepted at par or MOP 1.00 for retail payments. For United States dollars, to which the Hong Kong dollar is in turn loosely pegged, the exchange rate is around MOP 8 to 1 US dollar. Although it is possible to exchange patacas in Macau, it is either difficult or impossible to do so elsewhere. The few places in

where patacas are available are concentrated on Cleverly Street in Central, a short distance from the

Hong Kong–Macau Ferry Terminal The Hong Kong–Macau Ferry Terminal is a ferry terminal and heliport, centrally located in Hong Kong. It is also known as the Macau Ferry Terminal, the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Pier or the Shun Tak Heliport, and has an ICAO code of VHST. The ...

. Although the pataca is the legal tender of Macau, the Hong Kong dollar is almost universally acceptable in the region, and in some cases, is preferred to the pataca. Circulation of the pataca is mandated by a decree (Decreto-Lei n.º 16/95/M) prohibiting refusal by merchants, but some casinos flout this rule and refuse bets in patacas.Archived copy
Decreto-Lei n. 16/95/M The Hong Kong dollar and

Chinese yuan The renminbi ( ; currency symbol, symbol: Yen and yuan sign, ¥; ISO 4217, ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB), also known as the Chinese yuan, is the official currency of the China, People's Republic of China. The renminbi is issued by the Peop ...

are generally accepted throughout Macau from casinos to restaurants. Payments to government agencies can also be made in both Hong Kong dollars and patacas. As Macau currently imposes no restrictions on the import or export of local or foreign currency, visitors can change their currency in hotels, banks and bureaux de change located all around the city including 24 hour currency exchange booths at

Macau International Airport Macau International Airport is an international airport in the special administrative region of Macau, situated at the eastern end of Taipa island and neighbouring waters. It opened for commercial operations on 9 November 1995, during Portu ...

(

Taipa Island Taipa ( zh, t=氹仔, ; , ) is an area in Macau, connected to Coloane through the area known as Cotai, which is largely built from reclaimed land. Located on the northern half of the island, Taipa's population is mostly suburban. Administrati ...

) and at the Lisboa Hotel (

Macau Peninsula The Macau Peninsula is the historical and most populous part of Macau. It has an area of () and is geographically connected to Guangdong Province at the northeast through an isthmus wide. The peninsula, together with downtown Zhuhai, sits on ...

) for customers if they want to change their currency into patacas outside working hours.

References

Citations

Sources

* All MOP exchange rates after 1990 are according to the historical ''China Statistical Yearbook''. * * * *

External links

Abdullah Beydoun's Banknoteworld: Macau
– a gallery of Macau banknote issues past and present *
Banco Nacional Ultramarino (Macau)
*
Banknotes issued by the Banco Nacional Ultramarino.
*
Bank of China (Macau)
*
SinoBanknote

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macau Pataca Fixed exchange rate Economy of Macau Currencies with multiple banknote issuers Currencies of Macau Currencies introduced in 1894 Currencies introduced in 1906 1894 establishments in Asia 1906 establishments in Macau Currencies of Asia Circulating currencies