Brazil's monetary reform of February 1967 — which introduced the cruzeiro novo at a rate of 1,000 old cruzeiros — triggered a complete recoinage, and this 20 centavos issue was among the first denominations struck under the new system. The reform was driven by inflation that had eroded the old cruzeiro to near worthlessness over the preceding decade. Production ran across a narrow four-year window before the cruzeiro novo was itself quietly renamed back to "cruzeiro" in 1970, making the novo designation officially obsolete almost as soon as it had been established.
Brazil's monetary reform of February 1967 — which introduced the cruzeiro novo at a rate of 1,000 old cruzeiros — triggered a complete recoinage, and this 20 centavos issue was among the first denominations struck under the new system. The reform was driven by inflation that had eroded the old cruzeiro to near worthlessness over the preceding decade. Production ran across a narrow four-year window before the cruzeiro novo was itself quietly renamed back to "cruzeiro" in 1970, making the novo designation officially obsolete almost as soon as it had been established.