Brazil's 1985 cruzeiro was already a dying denomination when this piece was struck. Inflation was running above 200% annually, and within months the entire cruzeiro system would be scrapped in favor of the cruzado at a 1,000-to-1 conversion rate — the Plano Cruzado of February 1986. This FAO issue was part of a global UN Food and Agriculture Organization program promoting agricultural self-sufficiency, though the irony of commemorating food security during one of Brazil's most destabilizing economic crises was apparently lost on the issuing authority.
Brazil's 1985 cruzeiro was already a dying denomination when this piece was struck. Inflation was running above 200% annually, and within months the entire cruzeiro system would be scrapped in favor of the cruzado at a 1,000-to-1 conversion rate — the Plano Cruzado of February 1986. This FAO issue was part of a global UN Food and Agriculture Organization program promoting agricultural self-sufficiency, though the irony of commemorating food security during one of Brazil's most destabilizing economic crises was apparently lost on the issuing authority.