Does badly without copper for currency (6)
I believe the answer is:
escudo
'currency' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'does badly without copper' is the wordplay.
'badly' is an anagram indicator.
'without' means one lot of letters goes inside another ('without' can be similar in meaning to 'outside').
'copper' becomes 'cu' (chemical symbol).
'does' anagrammed gives 'esdo'.
'esdo' enclosing 'cu' is 'ESCUDO'.
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for escudo that I've seen before include "Former monetary unit of Portugal" , "money in past" , "Former European currency unit" , "US code, oddly, used in Portugal until recently" , "coin in use before the euro" .)