5000 Cruzados

The 5000 Cruzados note arrived during one of the most turbulent monetary episodes in Brazilian history. The Cruzado itself had been introduced in 1986 as part of the Plano Cruzado, a heterodox stabilization program that froze prices and briefly made the government wildly popular — before collapsing spectacularly under suppressed inflation that had been accumulating for months. By 1988, the denomination structure was already racing to keep up with prices that the plan had failed to contain.

Within two years this note was effectively obsolete, superseded first by the Cruzado Novo in 1989 and then by further currency replacements through the early 1990s.