2000 Réis - Pedro II

Brazil's 2000 réis silver coinage of this period was produced under Pedro II during the final, turbulent years of the Empire — the same years the abolitionist movement was dismantling the slave economy that had underwritten Brazilian agriculture for three centuries. The Golden Law of May 1888 ended slavery outright, alienating the planter class whose political loyalty had long propped up the monarchy. Pedro II was deposed by a military coup in November 1889, making the last issues of this type among the final coins struck under any Brazilian emperor.