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.