There have been nine different units of Brazilian currency in sequence over the country's history:[1][2][3][4][5] 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 codeBRL.
Dutch Brazil's emergency coinage were the first ever coins minted in Brazilian territory, and the first coins with the name "Brasil" inscribed.₢$100 (100 cruzeiros — 1st cruzeiro)NCr$100 (100 cruzeiros) (2nd cruzeiro - second family, issued between 1981 and 1984)Cz$100 (100 cruzados)NCz$100 (100 cruzados novos, overstamped Cr$100 note)Cr$100 (100 cruzeiros – 3rd cruzeiro)CR$100 (100 cruzeiros reais, overstamped Cr$100,000 note)
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.[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]
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 "123500 réis", and "123" meant "123000" 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.[8] While the Portuguese real may have continued to be legal tender in Brazil, the Brazilian real became a separate currency at that point.
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;[13][14]
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:
More information Symbol, Meaning ...
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.
Coins
The following tables indicate what coins were present in each of the currencies of Brazil, with the exception of réis:[c]
More information Symbol, Meaning ...
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 value in 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
Close
More information Currency\Face value, Cruzeiro (1st) ...
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$5, respectively). It is, however, present in all the other currencies:
Detail from cover of an Italian magazine bought in Brazil in 1960, stamped with the price tag "Cr$ 13,00" using the double-stroke dollar sign.The official symbol of the first cruzeiro, as per the 1942 decree, was "Cr $" — with two separate letters, a space, and a single-stroke dollar sign. However, the space was often omitted, and the two-stroke dollar sign "", previously used for the real, was often used. Also, some typewriters and typefaces had a "₢" ligature that was occasionally used in place of the "Cr".[10]
Although the 100-cruzado coin issued in 1988 was issued for "common circulation", its coinage in three 200,000-piece models was too small for circulation purposes. The silver 20-cruzeiro coin issued in 1972 had a coinage almost as large as the sum of the coins of the three 100-cruzado models issued in 1988 and did not serve the common circulation.
Pick, Albert (1994): Standard Catalog of World Paper Money: General Issues. Colin R. Bruce II and Neil Shafer (editors) (7th ed.). Krause Publications. ISBN0-87341-207-9
Conselho Monetário Nacional do Brasil (1967): "Ata da 68a Sessão, realizada em 8.2.1967" (including creation of the new currency novo cruzeiro, page 2. Available at the website of the Casa da Moeda do Brasil. Accessed on 2021-08-15. Quote": "Tomou-se como abreviatura da nova moeda o símbolo NCr$, 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$".
"Resolução nº 144 do Conselho Monetário Nacional"[Resolution CMN 144](PDF) (in Brazilian Portuguese). Central Bank of Brazil. Retrieved 26 March 2022. A partir de 15 de maio de 1970, a unidade do sistema monetário brasileiro passará a denominar-se CRUZEIRO e terá como símbolo a expressão Cr$. ('Starting May 15th, 1970, the Brazilian monetary unit will be renamed the cruzeiro and its symbol will be Cr$')
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" (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 123
", that is, 1000 réis.
