Tags: Currency.
The pataca was a monetary unit of account used in Portuguese Timor between 1894 and 1958 except for the period 1942-1945 when the occupying Japanese forces introduced the Netherlands Indies gulden and the roepiah. As in the case of the Macanese pataca which is still in use today the East Timor unit was based on the silver Mexican dollar coins which were prolific in the wider region in the 19th century.