Timor-Leste document photos online

Timor-Leste is one of the few nations that holds no monetary keys to its own wallet: since 2000 its official money has been the U.S. dollar, with banknotes shipped directly from America's Federal Reserve. Yet the country mints its own coins, the centavo, struck not at home but in Lisbon at Portugal's national mint. Each features local flora and fauna, and in 2013 and 2017 the government quietly added 100 and 200 centavo coins, worth one and two dollars, specifically to stop wearing out the cheapest U.S. banknotes. It is a passport-and-currency identity stitched together from three continents.

• Currency Timor-Leste's official banknotes are U.S. dollars supplied by the Federal Reserve, yet its coins, the centavo, have been minted since 2003 at Portugal's national mint in Lisbon.
• Coin design The 100 and 200 centavo coins, worth exactly one and two U.S. dollars, were introduced in 2013 and 2017 mainly to avoid the cost of constantly replacing worn-out small American banknotes.
• Passport power The Timorese passport ranked 51st on the 2025 Henley Passport Index, opening around 94 destinations visa-free, placing it among the stronger passports in Southeast Asia.
• Travel ties As a member of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries since 2002, Timorese citizens can enter Portugal without a tourist visa and stay up to 90 days in any 180-day period.
• Statehood Timor-Leste is widely called the first new sovereign state of the 21st century, restoring its independence on 20 May 2002 after 24 years of Indonesian occupation.
• Languages The passport and constitution carry two official languages, Tetum and Portuguese, with the constitutional order listing Tetum first as 'Tetun no Portugés.'
• Enclave The district of Oecusse is a piece of Timor-Leste cut off from the rest of the country and entirely surrounded by Indonesia, a survival of the 1859 Treaty of Lisbon that split the island.
• ASEAN On 26 October 2025 Timor-Leste became ASEAN's 11th member, capping a 14-year wait and marking the bloc's first expansion since Cambodia joined in 1999.
• Trade history Timor's first entry into world trade was its prized sandalwood, which lured Chinese merchants to its coasts as far back as the 14th century, long before any European arrived.