Postage stamps and postal history of Costa Rica change in currency from "Reales" to the new Pesos and "Centavos", the issue of 1863 was surcharged with new values for postal use: 1 Centavos, 2 Centavos, 5 Centavos (all over the Medio Real stamp), 10 Centavos (over Dos Reales) and 20 Centavos (over Cuatro Reales). The 5, 10 and 20 Centavos were also surcharged "U.P.U." Costa Rican stamps were issued overprinted "Guanacaste" in 1885-89 following war with Nicaragua over the sovereignty of Guanacaste. The first issue in the new "Colón" currency was dated 1900 and put into circulation in 1901. It consists of ten stamps with values ranging from
Portuguese escudo Portuguese escudo The Portuguese escudo is the currency of Portugal prior to the introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999 and its removal from circulation on 28 February 2002. The escudo was subdivided into 100 "centavos". The word "escudo" means "shield". Amounts in escudos were written as "escudos" $ "centavos" with the "cifrão" as the decimal separator (e.g. "25$00" means $25.00, "100$50" means $100.50). Because of the conversion rate of 1000 réis = $1, three decimal places were initially used ($1 = 1$000). Escudo gold coinage was initially introduced in 1722 with denominations including escudo, 2, 4, and 8