The BdP has a service responsible for assessing the value of damaged banknotes and coins (for example, in fires, floods or if they have been buried). After the assessment, the holders receive a sum of money.

In the 2023 report, the BdP states that last year it assessed the value of 28,768 banknotes and returned 1.4 million euros to their owners. In 2022, the amount had been 1.6 million euros.

Any citizen who has destroyed or mutilated banknotes (damaged by humidity, burned, eaten by animals, among other reasons) can send them to the Banco de Portugal for assessment. For a euro banknote to be assessed, more than 50% of the surface of the banknote must be able to be reconstructed, in order to guarantee its authenticity by the security elements (in the case of escudo banknotes, it was 75%).

If it is possible to assess the value of the damaged banknote, it is destroyed and the citizens are given the equivalent amount.

If the banknotes are unrecognisable, they are considered lost, destroyed and the owner does not receive any compensation.

All cases of destroyed banknotes that reach the Banco de Portugal for assessment are reported to the Financial Information Unit of the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) and to the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP), in order to prevent possible crimes.

When the banking crisis of 2008 occurred and there was fear of the collapse of banks and loss of savings, many people withdrew money and kept it at home. A few years later, they went to get the banknotes they had kept and realised that they were destroyed. In 2022, on the island of São Jorge (Azores), the fear that the volcanic eruption would destroy homes (as happened in the Canary Islands, in Spain) led many people to go and get money that they had kept at home to deposit in the bank. Then, they realised the state of the banknotes and many went to the Banco de Portugal to have them assessed.

In addition to destroyed or mutilated banknotes handed in by citizens, the Banco de Portugal also assesses the value of stained banknotes, for example, by accidental shots in automatic banknote dispensers (commonly known as ATMs) or in money transport bags. The bags that cash-in-transit companies use to transport banknotes have intelligent devices that neutralise the banknotes when any strange movement occurs, by staining them with ink.

This area of the Banco de Portugal also assesses the value of coins, although these are much more resistant, and it is also necessary to attest to their genuineness and to check that the damage was not intentional.

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