The Colombian peso (COP) is the official currency of Colombia, symbolized as $. An unofficial abbreviation, COL$, is used to distinguish it from the US dollar. Banknotes range from 2000 to 100,000 pesos, while smaller denominations are rarely used. Introduced as the official currency in 1810, it replaced the real at 1 peso = 8 reales. Although divided into 100 centavos, these are not in circulation. Due to economic conditions, the smallest commonly used coin is 50 pesos, with transactions rounded to the nearest 50 pesos.