The Brazilian real (pronounced) is the official currency of Brazil and it’s also the most commonly used in the Americas. It’s called the real because of its conversion rate at the time of currency reform in 1994. One new real was worth one thousand old real. The real has gained popularity alongside the US dollar because of their similar buying power in the Americas. The currency code for the Brazilian real is BRL and it is represented by the symbol R$.The new Brazilian real was introduced in 1994 alongside the old real. The currency reform reduced the value of the old real by a factor of 1,000 and replaced it with the new real. The new Brazilian real was given a price of US$0.50 at the time of its introduction.At the time of the currency reform, Brazil’s exchange rate to the US dollar was approximately 7,000 reals to one US dollar. This means that if you were to convert your savings while the currency reform was taking place, you would have received 70 reals for every dollar exchanged.The exchange rate of the Brazilian real to the US dollar has changed dramatically in the past two decades. When the real was introduced in 1994, it was worth $0.50 and in 2013, it reached an all-time high of $1.9.
