Mozambican metical

The metical (plural: meticais) is the currency of Mozambique, abbreviated with the symbol MZN or MTn. It is nominally divided into 100 centavos.

History

First metical (MZM)

The metical (<tt>MZM</tt>) replaced the escudo in 1980 at par. It was divided into 100 centavos. The metical underwent severe inflation. After the revaluation of the Romanian leu, the metical briefly became the least valued currency unit, at a value of about 24,500 meticais per USD, until the Zimbabwean dollar took the title in late August 2005.

Second metical (MZN)

On July 1, 2006, Mozambique redenominated the metical at a rate of 1000:1. The new ISO 4217 code is <tt>MZN</tt>. New coins and banknotes were introduced on July 1, 2006, and the transitional period during which both old and new meticais could be used lasted until December 31, 2006. During the conversion, the new currency was locally abbreviated as MTn, but has since largely returned to MT.

Old meticais will be redeemed by the Bank of Mozambique for a period of six years, until December 31, 2012.

Coins

First metical

In 1980, coins were introduced in denominations of 50 centavos, 1, 2½, 5, 10 and 20 meticais. The 50 centavos, 2½ and 5 meticais were minted in aluminium, with the 1 metical in brass and the 10 and 20 meticais in cupro-nickel. In 1986, aluminium 1, 10, 20 and 50 meticais were introduced. A new coinage issued in 1994 was composed of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 meticais, with the lower...
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