The centavo (Spanish and Portuguese 'one hundredth') is a fractional monetary unit that represents one hundredth of a basic monetary unit in many countries around the world. The term comes from Latin centum (), with the added suffix -avo ('portion').

Coins of various denominations of centavos have been made from copper, stainless steel, aluminum-bronze, and silver.

Circulating

Places that currently use the centavo include:

• Argentine peso

• Bolivian boliviano

• Brazilian real

• Cape Verdean escudo

• Colombian peso

• Cuban peso

• Dominican peso

• East Timorese centavo coins

• Ecuadorian centavo coins

• Guatemalan quetzal

• Honduran lempira

• Macanese avos

• Mexican peso

• Mozambican metical

• Nicaraguan córdoba

• Philippine peso (In English usage; sentimo or céntimo is used in Tagalog and Spanish respectively.)

Obsolete

Former forms of the centavo that are no longer in use include:

• Brazilian cruzeiro (from 1942 to 1986 and from 1990 to 1993)

• Brazilian cruzado (from 1986 to 1989)

• Brazilian cruzado novo (from 1989 to 1990)

• Costa Rican colón (Between 1917 and 1920 only. As céntimo for other periods.)

• Ecuadorian sucre (New centavo coins continued to circulate after the sucre was replaced by U.S. dollar in 2000.)

• Salvadoran colón

• Guinea Bissau peso

• Mozambican escudo

• Portuguese escudo (before the euro was introduced)

• Portuguese Guinean escudo

• Portuguese Indian escudo

• Puerto Rican peso

• São Tomé and Príncipe escudo

• Venezuelan venezolano

• Venezuelan peso

• Chilean Cent (from 1975 to 1983, as a subdivision of the Chilean peso; out of circulation due to inflation)

See also

• Cent (currency)

• Coin

• Céntimo

References