Brazilian Currency

There have been nine different units of Brazilian currency in sequence over the country's history: the Portuguese and first Brazilian real (plural réis); 3 different types of cruzeiros; the cruzado; the novo cruzado; the cruzeiro real, and since 1994, the second incarnation of the Brazilian real (plural reais), with the symbol R$ and the ISO code BRL.

Historical currencies

While Portuguese settlers used Réis coins from Portugal, Dutch settlers occupying Northeastern Brazil used guilders. In 1645, the colony faced an economic crisis and, with a lack of financial support from the mainland and the need to pay for trops fighting Portuguese settlers, the local Dutch administration struck the first ever coins in Brazilian land, repurpusing gold coming from the Dutch Guinea. A few years later, in 1654, in an increasingly worse situation, coins were again minted to pay off debt, but this time with silver from the administrators' own coffers.

Note that the dates of various currencies overlap. For example, the cruzeiro novo was still legal tender for 2 years after the second cruzeiro was introduced.

Not considering inflation, one modern Brazilian real is equivalent to 2,750,000,000,000,000,000 times the old real, that is, (2.75 quintillion) réis.

Before leaving Brazil in 1821, the Portuguese royal court withdrew all the bullion currency it could from banks in exchange for what would become worthless bond notes;

Banknotes

The following tables indicate what banknotes were present in each of the currencies of Brazil, except for the provisional issues of banknotes to exchange gold in the colonial period:

No single face value has been present in all historical Brazilian banknotes. For example, a face value of 100 is missing from the old real (as its lowest denomination of banknote is 500 Rs) and from the provisional cruzeiro novo (as its only banknotes were overstamps of the first cruzeiro, and the highest denomination was NCr$10). It is, however, present in all the other currencies.

Coins

The following tables indicate what coins were present in each of the currencies of Brazil, with the exception of réis:

! 0.01 !! 0.02 !! 0.05 !! 0.10 !! 0.20 !! 0.25 !! 0.50 !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! 5 !! 10 !! 20 !! 50 !! 100 !! 200 !! 300 !! 500 !! 1,000 !! 2,000 !! 5,000
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No single face value has been present in all historical Brazilian coins. For example, a face value of 1 is missing from the cruzeiro novo (as its highest denomination of coin is NCr$0.50 because it's a transitory monetary standard between the cruzeiro issued between 1942 and 1967 and the cruzeiro issued after 1970) and from the old real and the cruzeiro real (as their lowest denomination of coin is 5 Rs and CR$5, respectively). It is, however, present in all the other currencies:

File:1-cruzeiro-1957-reverso.png, ₢$1 (first cruzeiro/aluminium coinage 1957-1961)
File:1-cruzeiro-novo-1980-reverso.png, NCr$1 (second cruzeiro/second family 1979-1984)
File:1 Cruzado BRC de 1988.png, Cz$1
File:1-cruzado-novo-1989-reverso.png, NCz$1
File:BRE 1 - Reverso.JPG, Cr$1 (third cruzeiro - 1990)
File:1-real-2019-25-anos-reverso.png, R$1

Notes

References

Getúlio Vargas and A. de Souza Costa (1942): Decreto-Lei N. 4.791 - de 5 de outbro de 1942. ''Diário Oficial'' (Seção 1), issue published 1942-10-06, page 14899.

Central Bank of Brazil (1970):
Resolução Nº 144 of 31.3.1970
on change from cruzeiro novo to cruzeiro. Website of the Central Bank of Brazil; accessed on 2021-07-06.

(2020)
Image of the keyboard of a Smith Corona typewriter
made in the 1950s for the Brazilian market, featuring the "₢" and "$" keys near the right end of the upper row. From ad #1318087665 on the Mercado Livre website; accessed on 2021-08-15
archived
/ref>

Conselho Monetário Nacional do Brasil (1967):
Ata da 68^a Sessão, realizada em 8.2.1967
(including creation of the new currency ''novo cruzeiro'', page 2. Available at the website of the Casa da Moeda do Brasil. Accessed on 2021-08-15. Quote": "Tomou-se como abreviatura da nova moeda o símbolo NCr$, objetivando economia de despesas com as modificações dos teclados das máquinas de escrever, nacionais ou estrangeiras, em uso no Brasil, que já possuem a tecla Cr$".

Banco Central do Brasil (2005)
Cruzeiro
. Accessed on 2021-08-15.

"A friend from Rio de Janeiro (1986):

''New Yorker'' magazine, February 10, 1986. Archived, accessed on 2021-08-15.

БОНИСТИЧЕСКИЙ КАТАЛОГ БРАЗИЛИИ
("Paper money of Brazil"; in Russian)

Krause, Chester L. and Clifford Mishler (1991): ''Standard Catalog of World Coins: 1801–1991'' (18th ed.). Krause Publications.

Pick, Albert (1994): ''Standard Catalog of World Paper Money: General Issues''. Colin R. Bruce II and Neil Shafer (editors) (7th ed.). Krause Publications.

{{Historical currencies of Brazil

Historical currencies of Brazil