The Brazilian real
Currency · BRL · R$ · 1 country
Banco Central do Brasil put the real into circulation on 1 July 1994, turning each unit of a transitional index, the URV, into one real and retiring the cruzeiro real at 2,750 to one. The name is older than the coin. Brazil counted in a real, and in its plural réis, from 1747 until the cruzeiro took over in 1942.
The sign
The sign puts an R, for real, in front of the dollar sign. The cruzeiro real it replaced was written the same way, CR$, and the coin struck in 2024 for the plan's thirtieth anniversary carries R$ on its inner disc beside the Efígie da República.
- ISO code
- BRL
- ISO number
- 986
- Subunit
- centavo, 1/100
An amount, written out
R$1,234.50
- R$1,234.50English
- R$ 1.234,50PortugueseBrazil
The sign in code
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, UTF-8
- HTML
R$R$- CSS
content: "R\0024";- JavaScript
"R\u0024"- UTF-8
0x52 0x24- UTF-16
0x0052 0x0024- UTF-32
0x00000052 0x00000024
Where the Brazilian real is the official currency
Brazil uses the real by itself. Banco Central do Brasil holds the power to issue it, and the Casa da Moeda, the national mint, makes the notes and coins.
About the Brazilian real
Who puts the real into circulation
Banco Central do Brasil was created in 1965 and holds, alone, the federal Union's power to issue the currency. It does not print it. The Casa da Moeda do Brasil, the national mint, makes the notes and coins to the central bank's specifications. Fresh notes go to the central bank to be imprinted with the signatures of the economy minister and the bank's governor, and are then handed to Banco do Brasil, a state-controlled commercial bank that holds them in custody, distributes them to other banks and helps collect worn and counterfeit notes. Only the central bank destroys them.
Price stability sits with the same institution. The bank pursues an inflation target set by the National Monetary Council, a regime in place since 1999 and now framed by Complementary Law No. 179 of 2021.
How an index prepared the switch
Brazil tried six stabilization plans between 1985 and 1993, and none of them held. Officials from the finance ministry, the central bank and the mint designed the Plano Real in the second half of 1993. The government announced every step in advance and ruled out freezes of prices, wages or assets, the tools earlier plans had leaned on.
The bridge was the Unidade Real de Valor. From March to June 1994 the URV and the cruzeiro real both served as units of account, but only the cruzeiro real could be paid over a counter. The central bank updated the URV every day and tied it to the US dollar from 1 March 1994, when one URV equalled CR$647.50. Wages, social security benefits and public sector contracts were converted to it first; other prices moved over by negotiation. On 1 July 1994 one URV became one real, and from then on prices were set in reais alone.
Why the first notes borrowed an old design
A new banknote design usually takes about two years, and the plan left a few months. The central bank took as its pattern the 200 cruzados novos note of 1989, issued for the centenary of the Republic, and had firms in Germany, England and France make part of the 5, 10 and 50 real notes.
Distribution to banks began in April 1994. In the two months that followed more than 940 million notes and 688 million coins went out across the country, and the old notes stayed in use until September. A 25 centavo coin followed on 30 September 1994, added because change in that range kept running short.
What the notes and coins show
The second family of notes, released from December 2010, changes size with value so that people with poor sight can tell them apart. Each carries the head of the Republic on the front and an animal on the back: a hawksbill turtle on the 2, a great egret on the 5, then a green-winged macaw, a golden lion tamarin, a jaguar and a dusky grouper. The 200 real note, with a maned wolf, entered circulation on 2 September 2020.
A second series of coins arrived in 1998, and the 1 real piece has two metals, a steel centre inside a bronze-plated ring. Production of the 1 centavo stopped in November 2005, though existing coins stay legal tender. In November 2019 the central bank had the Royal Dutch Mint strike 5 and 50 centavo coins, marked with a letter A to show they were not struck by the Casa da Moeda.
Common questions
Questions about the Brazilian real
What is the plural of real?
In Portuguese the plural is reais, and English writing uses either reais or reals. Banco Central do Brasil's English pages keep the Portuguese form, as in 277 billion reais of cash held by the public in July 2020. The currency Brazil used before 1942 had the older plural réis, and a thousand réis made a milréis.
Why is Brazil's currency called the real?
Banco Central do Brasil says the real takes its name from the currency in use before 1942. That old real ran from 1747, counted in réis, until the first cruzeiro replaced it at one cruzeiro to a thousand réis. Brazil has had eight currencies since 1942, beginning with the cruzeiro and ending, so far, with the modern real of July 1994.
What was the URV?
The Unidade Real de Valor was a unit of account that never circulated. It ran from March to June 1994, beside the cruzeiro real, and the central bank updated its value every day, tied to the US dollar from 1 March 1994. Wages, social security benefits and public contracts were converted into it first, and other prices followed through negotiation, so that most of the economy was already quoting in URV before the new notes existed. On 1 July 1994 one URV became one real, worth 2,750 cruzeiros reais. The central bank describes the unit as a tool for breaking inflationary inertia.
Which animals are on Brazilian banknotes?
The current family puts one animal on the back of each note: a hawksbill turtle on the 2 reais, a great egret on the 5, a green-winged macaw on the 10, a golden lion tamarin on the 20, a jaguar on the 50, a dusky grouper on the 100 and a maned wolf on the 200, which entered circulation in September 2020.