BRL | Brazilian Real

• As opposed to the American Dollar, a dot is used to divide thousands and a comma is used to divide decimal numbers. For instance, one thousand dollars and 20 cents is written in the USA in the following way: 1,000.20; while the same amount in Brazilian Real would be like: 1.000,20.
• The Portuguese expression “real” has two meanings: “realistic” and “royal”.
• The Brazilian currency has undergone 8 changes until it reached its present form. The Real was already in use in Brazil in the 17th century, but as a result of the intensive inflation, Cruzeiro was also introduced in 1942. This was replaced by the so-called new Cruzeiro between 1967 and 1970, but they returned to the old currency again in 1970. In the 1980s, Brazil was hit by heavy inflation again, therefore a new currency called Cruzado was introduced (1 cruzado = 1,000 cruzeiro). In 1990 Brazil started to use the Cruzeiro again, but the efforts made to stop the inflation failed, so the new currency called Cruzeiro Real temporarily became the new currency in 1993. Finally in 1944, Brazilian Real became the national currency of the country, which is considered to be relatively stable compared to its predecessors.
• Brazilian banknotes are remarkably individual, each has a different colour (vivid colours are used), and it is an interesting features that each banknote has a different animal on the reverse side. There are 7 banknotes in circulation, but no 1-real notes are issued any longer (however, there exist 1-real coins), but they are still in use.
• Brazilian Real is sub-divided into centavo. There are five different coins including the 5, 10, 25 and 50 centavo and the 1-real coins.