The Brazilian currency has been renamed and redefined several times through its history.[1][2][3][4][5] Since 1994, the official one is the Brazilian real (plural reais, with symbol R$ and ISO code BRL.
Historical currencies
Dutch Brazil's emergency coinage were the first ever coins minted in Brazilian territory, and the first coins with the name "Brasil" inscribed.
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.[6] 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.[6]
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, 2.75×1018 (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;[12][13]
Banknotes
Every historical Brazilian banknote with a face value of 100
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:
Legend
Symbol
Meaning
Currency had a banknote with this face value
Currency did not have a banknote with this face value
Currency had legal tender with this face value in the form of an overstamped banknote from the previous currency
Currency had a project to launch a banknote, but it never came into circulation
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:
Historical Brazilian banknotes with face value of 100
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$5, respectively). It is, however, present in all the other currencies:
^ abCover from the Brazilian magazine O Cruzeiro ("The Southern Cross") from 1928, showing the price as "1", that is, 1000 réis. In the Portuguese Empire and in Brazil until 1942, the symbol "Rs" or "Rs." was prefixed to the amount, and additionally the double-stroke dollar sign "" (cifrão) was used as a thousands separator in amounts greater than 999 réis. If the last three digits were "000", they would sometimes be omitted. If the cifrão was present, the "Rs." was commonly omitted too. Thus "Rs 123500" meant "123 500 réis", and "123" meant "123 000" réis.
^There isn't an official or exact date for the transition from Portuguese réis to Brazilian réis. Brazil became independent on 12 October 1822, and the first coin minted in the new country, known as the coronation piece, was minted in that same year (1822), exclusively tn Brazil, to commemorate Pedro I's coronation.[7] While the Portuguese real may have continued to be legal tender in Brazil, the Brazilian real became a separate currency at that point.
^ abcdDetail from cover of an Italian magazine bought in Brazil in 1960, stamped with the price tag "Cr$ 13,00" using the double-stroke dollar sign.The official symbol of the first cruzeiro, as per the 1942 decree, was "Cr $" — with two separate letters, a space, and a single-stroke dollar sign. However, the space was often omitted, and the two-stroke dollar sign "", previously used for the real, was often used. Also, some typewriters and typefaces had a "₢" ligature that was occasionally used in place of the "Cr".[10]
^
The following face values of réis coins were minted: 5, 10, 20, 37.5, 40, 50, 75, 80, 100, 160, 200, 300, 320, 400, 500, 640, 800, 960, 1000, 1200, 2000, 4000, 5000, 6400, 10,000 and 20,000
^Although the 100-cruzado coin issued in 1988 was issued for "common circulation", its coinage in three 200,000-piece models was too small for circulation purposes. The silver 20-cruzeiro coin issued in 1972 had a coinage almost as large as the sum of the coins of the three 100-cruzado models issued in 1988 and did not serve the common circulation.
References
^Banco Central do Brasil (2005) "Cruzeiro". Accessed on 2021-08-15.
^"A friend from Rio de Janeiro (1986): "Museum of Money, Talk of the Town" New Yorker magazine, February 10, 1986. Archived, accessed on 2021-08-15.
^Krause, Chester L. and Clifford Mishler (1991): Standard Catalog of World Coins: 1801–1991 (18th ed.). Krause Publications. ISBN0-87341-150-1
^Pick, Albert (1994): Standard Catalog of World Paper Money: General Issues. Colin R. Bruce II and Neil Shafer (editors) (7th ed.). Krause Publications. ISBN0-87341-207-9
^ abConselho Monetário Nacional do Brasil (1967): "Ata da 68a Sessão, realizada em 8.2.1967" (including creation of the new currency novo cruzeiro, page 2. Available at the website of the Casa da Moeda do Brasil. Accessed on 2021-08-15. Quote": "Tomou-se como abreviatura da nova moeda o símbolo NCr$, 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$".
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