The colón was the currency of El Salvador between 1919 and 2001. It was subdivided into 100 centavos and its ISO 4217 code was SVC. The plural is colones in Spanish but English-speakers often say colons instead. The currency was named after Christopher Columbus, known as Cristóbal Colón in Spanish.
The colón replaced the peso at par in 1919. It was initially pegged to the U.S. dollar at a rate of 2 colones = 1 dollar. El Salvador left the gold st...
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The colón was the currency of El Salvador between 1919 and 2001. It was subdivided into 100 centavos and its ISO 4217 code was SVC. The plural is colones in Spanish but English-speakers often say colons instead. The currency was named after Christopher Columbus, known as Cristóbal Colón in Spanish.
The colón replaced the peso at par in 1919. It was initially pegged to the U.S. dollar at a rate of 2 colones = 1 dollar. El Salvador left the gold standard in 1931 and its value floated. The colón was replaced in 2001 by the United States dollar at an exchange rate of 8.75 colones to the dollar (see dollarization).
Because the colón replaced the peso at par, 1 and 5 centavos coins issued before 1919 continued to be issued without design change after the colón's introduction. In 1921, cupro-nickel 10 centavos were introduced, followed by silver 25 centavos in 1943. In 1953, silver 50 centavos were introduced alongside smaller silver 25 centavos. Both were replaced by nickel coins in 1970....
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