Brazilian currency has had an interesting history.
Dom Pedro II, king of
Portugal, issued the first Brazilian currency in
1695 and it was called
reis.
On November 1, 1942, the Brazilian government dropped three zeros from the reis and called the new currency cruzeiro.
In 1965, President Castel Branco dropped three zeros from the cruzeiro and called the new money cruzeiro novo.
In 1967 the money was re-named cruzeiro without dropping any zeros.
In March 1986, the government of President Jose Sarney dropped three zeros from the cruzeiro and the new currency became known as cruzado.
In January 1989, Sarney once again tried to reduce inflation dropped three more zeros from the cruzado and called the new currency cruzado novo.
In 1990, President Fernando Collor de Mello in an attempt to combat an inflation rate of 6,077.4% for the previous 12 months, renamed the currency, calling it cruzeiro.
In August 1993, President Itamar Franco, dropped three zeros from the cruzeiro and called it cruzeiro real.
In July 1994, the government of President Itamar Franco issued a new currency called real. Once again, dropping three zeros (actually, the exchange rate was 2750 to 1).
Since 1942, 18 zeros have been dropped from the Brazilian currency and it has had eight name changes and seven different names.
As of 24 July, 2002, the exchange rate was 2.941 Real per USA Dollar.