History

The peso

Peso

The word peso was the name of a coin that originated in Spain and became of immense importance internationally...

 replaced the Salvadoran

Salvadoran real

-History:The Spanish colonial and Central American Republic reales both circulated in El Salvador. Between 1828 and 1835, coins were issued specifically for El Salvador. From 1830, various foreign coins were counterstamped for use in El Salvador. In 1877, banknotes denominated in pesos were...

 and Central American Republic real

Central American Republic real

The real was the currency of the Federal Republic of Central America from 1824. Sixteen silver reales equaled one gold escudo. The Central American Republic's real replaced the Spanish colonial real at par and continued to circulate and be issued after the constituent states left the Central...

es, at a rate of 8 reales = 1 peso. Banknotes were issued from 1877. In 1889, El Salvador decimalized, with the peso subdivided into 100 centavo

Centavo

Centavo is a Spanish and Portuguese word, derived from the Latin centum, meaning "one hundred", and the suffix -avo, meaning "portion" or "fraction"...

s, and began to issue coins. The peso was initially pegged to the French franc

French franc

The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...

, at a rate of 1 peso = 5 francs. The peso was replaced in 1919 by the colón

Salvadoran colón

The colón was the currency of El Salvador between 1892 and 2001, until it was substituted by the U.S. Dollar. It was subdivided into 100 centavos and its ISO 4217 code was SVC. The plural is colones in Spanish and was named after Christopher Columbus, known as Cristóbal Colón in Spanish.The symbol...

, at par.

Coins

The first decimal Salvadoran coin

Coin

A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....

s were issued in 1889. These were cupro-nickel 1 and 3 centavos. On August 28, 1892, the Salvadoran mint was established and production of silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 and gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

coins denominated in centavos and pesos began. In addition to copper 1 centavo coins, there were silver 5, 10, 20 and centavos and 1 peso, and gold 2½, 5, 10 and 20 pesos, although the gold coins were only issued in very small numbers. In 1909, bronze ¼ real coins were issued in response to the continued use of the real currency system in parts of the country. Coins for 25 centavos were introduced in 1911. Production of silver coins was suspended in 1914.

Banknotes

The government issued banknotes denominated in pesos in 1877, in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 500 pesos. Following this, private banks issued notes until after the peso was replaced by the colón. These included the Banco Agricola Comercial, the Banco de Ahuachapam, the Banco de Centro America y Londres, the Banco Industrial del Salvador, the Banco Internacional del Salvador, the Banco Nacional del Salvador, the Banco Occidental and the Banco Salvadoreño. Notes were issued in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 500 pesos.