Macanese pataca

The pataca (Chinese: 澳門圓; ISO 4217 code: MOP) is the currency of Macau. It is subdivided into 100 avos (Cantonese: 仙; sin), with 10 avos called ho (毫) in Cantonese. The abbreviation MOP$ is commonly used. Macau has a currency board system under which the legal tender, Macau pataca (or Macao pataca), is 100 percent backed by foreign exchange reserves, in this case currently the Hong Kong dollar. Moreover, the currency board, Monetary Authority of ... More

The pataca (Chinese: 澳門圓; ISO 4217 code: MOP) is the currency of Macau. It is subdivided into 100 avos (Cantonese: 仙; sin), with 10 avos called ho (毫) in Cantonese. The abbreviation MOP$ is commonly used. Macau has a currency board system under which the legal tender, Macau pataca (or Macao pataca), is 100 percent backed by foreign exchange reserves, in this case currently the Hong Kong dollar. Moreover, the currency board, Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM), has a statutory obligation to issue and redeem pataca on demand against the Hong Kong dollar at a fixed exchange rate and without limit. The pataca was introduced in Macau and Portuguese Timor in the year 1894, but only as a unit of account. The unit initially corresponded to the Mexican dollar, and it replaced the Portuguese real at a rate of 1 pataca = 450 réais. The name pataca derives from the fact that the Portuguese always referred to the Mexican dollar as the 'Pataca Mexicana'. At the end of the 19th century, there was no...

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