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 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 troops fighting Portuguese settlers, the local Dutch administration struck the first ever coins in Brazilian land, repurposing 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.

+ Historical currencies of Brazil Introduction Withdrawal Duration Name Symbol ISO Conversion Notes — — — Portuguese Real Rs N/A 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 " réis", and "123" meant "" réis. 12 October 1822 Real (old, pl. réis) = 1 Portuguese real 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. While the Portuguese real may have continued to be legal tender in Brazil, the Brazilian real became a separate currency at that point. 1 November 1942 Cruzeiro (first) Cr$ = 1,000 réis 13 February 1967 30 June 1972 Cruzeiro novo NCr$ = 1,000 cruzeiros 15 May 1970 Cruzeiro (second) Cr$ BRB = 1 cruzeiro novo Change of name of the cruzeiro novo. Not a new currency. 27 February 1986 Cruzado Cz$ BRC = 1,000 cruzeiros 15 January 1989 Cruzado novo NCz$ BRN = 1,000 cruzados 16 March 1990 Cruzeiro (third) Cr$ BRE = 1 cruzado novo 1 August 1993 Cruzeiro real CR$ BRR = 1,000 cruzeiros 1 July 1994 (still in use) Real (new, pl. reais) R$ BRL = 2,750 cruzeiros reais

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:

+ 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 valuein the form of an overstamped banknotefrom the previous currency Currency had a project to launch a banknote, but it never came into circulation

Currency\Face value 0.01 0.05 0.10 0.50 1 2 5 10 20 50 100 200 500 1K 2K 5K 10K 20K 30K 50K 100K 200K 500K 1 million 5 million Real (old) Cruzeiro (1st) Cruzeiro novo Cruzeiro (2nd) Cruzado Cruzado novo Cruzeiro (3rd) Cruzeiro real Real (new)

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:

+ Legend Symbol Meaning Currency had a circulating coin with this face value Currency did not have any coin with this face value Currency had legal tender with this face valuein the form of a non-circulating commemorative coin The currency took advantage of coins of the previous standard was issued coins in such values Currency had a project to launch a coin, but it never came into circulation

! 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

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:

Brazilian currency

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