Yeah I can see the association with the coat of arms - not like I had a great understanding of the currency naming or anything but went to check since I knew "e

Yeah I can see the association with the coat of arms - not like I had a great understanding of the currency naming or anything but went to check since I knew "escudo" had to have been in use after the implementation of the republic (which dethroned the royal house) - and in fact they substituted the "real" by the "escudo". It's a fun take having it named directly as "shield", since the ability to control the money production can be seen as a weapon/defence.