100 Cruzados

This note exists because of the Cruzado Plan, launched in February 1986 under Finance Minister Funaro — Brazil's attempt to break hyperinflation through a currency conversion, a wage-price freeze, and a wholesale redenomination that replaced the cruzeiro at 1,000:1. The plan briefly worked, holding inflation near zero for several months, which gave these notes a genuine period of stable circulation before the freeze collapsed spectacularly in late 1986.

The four signature combinations documented across the series trace the rapid turnover of economic ministers as the plan unraveled — Funaro, Bracher, Bresser Pereira, and finally Mailson da Nóbrega, each inheriting a worse situation than the last. By the time the final signature range was issued, Brazil was already preparing the cruzado novo to replace this series.