Salvadoran colón

Salvadoran colón
colón salvadoreño (Spanish)
ISO 4217
Code	SVC
Denominations
Subunit
1/100	centavo
Plural	colones
Symbol	₡
Banknotes	1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 colones
Coins	1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 centavos, 1, 5 colón
Demographics
User(s)	El Salvador
Issuance
Central bank	Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador
This infobox shows the latest status before this currency was rendered obsolete.

The colón was the currency of El Salvador between 1892 and 2001, until it was replaced 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 for the colón is a c with two slashes. The symbol "₡" has Unicode code point U+20A1, and the decimal representation is 8353. In HTML it can be entered as ₡. The colón sign is not to be confused with the cent sign (¢), which has a code point U+00A2 in Unicode (or 162 in decimal), or with the cedi sign ₵, which has a code point U+20B5 in Unicode (or 8373 in decimal). Nonetheless, the commonly available cent symbol '¢' is frequently used locally to designate the colón in price markings and advertisements.

On October 1 of 1892, the government of President Carlos Ezeta, decided that the Salvadoran peso be called 'Colon', in homage to the "discoverer" of America. 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.

On June 19, 1934 the Central Bank was created as the government body responsible for monetary policy and the sole body authorized to issue currency in the nation. On January 1, 2001 under the government of President Francisco Flores, the Law of Monetary Integration went into effect and allowed the free circulation of U.S. dollar in the country (see dollarization), with a fixed exchange rate of 8.75 colones. The colon has not officially ceased to be legal tender.

In the mid-19th century, farms produced tin sheets (property sheets) with the farm's name and were used as payment to employees, the sheets only had value in the farm store that issued it, so it created a kind of monopoly. During the existence of the Central American Federation, the monetary system did not change with respect to the colonial system and continued using silver by weight as the main currency with circulation of macaques and property sheets. Once the federation dissolved, the Salvadoran government decreed the issuance of the first national currency, "Reales", gold coins engraved with an "R" and the "Escudos (Shields)" were silver coins with an "E" engraved.