Macau 10 Patacas (2005)

The pataca is the currency of Macau. It is subdivided into 100 avos, with 10 avos called ho (毫) in Cantonese. The abbreviation MOP$ is commonly used.

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'.

Obverse: Estátua da Deusa A-Má (statue of the Goddess A-Má,

Goddess of the Sea)

Reverse: Banco Nacional Ultramarino (BNU) building

Watermark: Lotus flower

The statue of the Goddess A'Ma (commemorating the year 1999 when Macau once again became part of China) is 20 meters high and is visible far out in the South China Sea.

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.

Macau's banknotes are not issued by a central bank or monetary authority but by two commercial banks, the Banco Nacional Ultramarino and the Bank of China. Owing to Macau's Portuguese colonial past, banknotes are printed in Portuguese as well as Chinese, including the name of the Bank of China which is written as both "Banco da China" and "中國銀行".

Many thanks to Elaine H. from Hong Kong.