Less change in Brazil
There’s a lot of talk about change in Brazil. And whether we’re discussing pulling people out of poverty through the Bolsa Família scheme, or the changes required to improve health and education for Brazil’s poorest communities, change is usually thought of as a positive thing. Well today I’d like to make the case for less change in Brazil. Here’s Exhibit A:
Not long after I arrived in Rio, I found I was accumulating more and more low value coins.
In just a few days of life in Rio, I find vast quantities of junk change (known colloquially in Britain as ‘shrapnel’) building up in my pockets. Like a reverse version of that amusement arcade ‘coin pusher‘ game, I attempt to deposit the coins into a pot (above) without causing a coin cascade to go clattering across my desk and rolling around the surrounding area.
I guess we all have our own idea of what represents ‘junk change’, but for me it is 5 and 10 Centavo coins, currently worth about 2 and 4 US cents (when I’m rich, I look forward to adding the 25 Centavo to the junk change list, but for now that’s just a heady dream…).
So without further ado, let me introduce you to the coins of Brazil:
1 Real
Who could have any complaints about this bi-coloured beauty? This is Brazil’s highest value coin and as such it seems fitting that it is also the largest. The silver centre is surrounded by a golden ring and the whole thing is adorned with various stripes, stars, swooshes and a big “1 Real” in case you were in any doubt. It’s a great feeling to go fishing in your pocket for a coin and come across the reassuring shape of the 1 Real. Pull out 2 more and you have enough to buy a dozen bananas!
Material: Stainless steel surrounded by brass-plated stainless steel.
Edge: Alternating smooth and stripes.
Not to be confused with: If you’re in the hurry and you can only see the coin’s edge, the 1 Real coin can be confused with the 25 Centavo.
50 Centavo
Another pleasing coin, this time because of its satisfying chunkiness (may even arouse mild saudade for those familiar with the UK one pound coin). The fat edges of this chubby disk leave plenty of space for an inscription of the country’s motto, Ordem e Progresso (see the first image of this post). The reverse side features the snappily named José Maria da Silva Paranhos Júnior (AKA Barão do Rio Branco), sporting a stern expression and an excellent handlebar moustache:
Material: Stainless steel.
Edge: Inscription.
Not to be confused with: Any of the Silver Rogues (see below).
25 Centavo
Just a touch smaller than the 1 Real, I wonder if a coin that is worth just a quarter of a Real really be this big? I guess that’s a question for the money designers. What I will say is that a new/polished 25 Centavo coin is a magnificent shade of gold (don’t come to me with talk of alloys or “brass plated steel” as Wikipedia puts it – they’re gold, OK?). The reverse side features Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca, the first president of the Republic of Brazil. He also sports some excellent facial hair.
Material: Brass-plated steel Gold.
Edge: Stripes.
Not to be confused with: If you’re in the hurry and you can only see the coin’s edge, the 25 Centavo can be mistaken for a 1 Real coin.
10 Centavo
The first of what I deem to be junk coins, the 10 Centavo is the smallest coin of all. This mini nugget starts off life the same auric shade as the 25 Centavo, but as you can see above, these little fellows often end up looking more than a little worse for wear. Their diminutive size gives them good pocket identifiability which can be handy when you miscounted your bus fair and the cobrador is demanding another 10 Centavos and the line of people waiting behind you stretches into the distance… The magnificently coiffed Dom Pedro I, first emperor of Brazil, features on the flip-side:
Material: Brass-plated steel
Edge: Stripes.
Not to be confused with: The 10 Centavo’s modest dimensions make it difficult to confuse with other coins.
5 Centavo
This coppery coloured coin is just pure annoyance. A trip to the supermarket can be a trying experience at the best of times, but the icing on the cake potentially comes at the end: you’ve packed up all your shopping and are just waiting for your change – the cashier scrabbles around at the bottom of his/her till and comes up with a fist-full of these near-worthless disks which are now doomed to jangle around in your pocket or clutter up your wallet/purse for the rest of the day. You mutter your thanks through gritted teeth…
The flip-side features Tiradentes, a man of humble origins whose principled ideas challenged the authorities and led to a grisly public execution. He was later revered as a hero. Sound familiar? He even looks like (modern day western-biased depictions of) Jesus!
He’s not the Messiah!
Material: Copper-plated steel.
Edge design: Smooth.
Not to be confused with: I dunno – the US 1 cent coin?
The Silver Rogues
And so we get to another major point of frustration with Brazilian coinage: The Silver Rogues. During what I can only imagine was an ill thought out, hurriedly put together design meeting, most likely held on a Friday afternoon sometime between New Year’s Day and Carnaval in 1994, near identical designs were agreed upon for the 25, 10 and 5 Centavo coins:
What were they thinking? In this image, the Silver Rogues from the 1990s are topped by their present day equivalents.
All 3 of the Silver Rogues were replaced in 1998, but they’re all still circulating today in significant numbers. Combine the 3 rogues with the present-day 50 Centavo coin and you’ve got an excellent recipe for coinage confusion. I wonder how much time and money has been lost over the last 20 years with 200 million Brazilians fiddling about with their change, trying to work what the hell they’re about to give or have just received.
(The 50 Centavo coin on the left is the same colour as all the others – it’s just reflecting something yellow).
The Solution
I have no solution for dealing with the Silver Rogues (apart from encouraging the government to hurry up with their efforts to melt these coins down into something more useful), but I have started a daily programme to reduce my (until recently) rapidly growing collection of shrapnel. Here’s how I paid for my last bus ride:
The cobradores (bus conductors) just love me…
Hey Tom
Cool article (just remember to put the plural in the titles, 5 centavos, 50 centavos etc)
xoxo
Hi Eliana! Thanks for that – I’m not sure I really understood your point about the plurals. In English (at least the English I speak!) we talk about a “fifty centavo coin” or a “five pound note” – a “five pounds note” or a “two pounds coin” is not correct. Anyway, I’m glad you liked the post :)
I’m OK with 5s and 10s. The staff in the supermarket I go to most often like you to have the odd number of cents rather than sort out loose change so I don’t hang on to them too long.
However, I really don’t like the old silver coins which are too confusing and just put them in a jar when I get them. When the last jar was full I gave it to a Brazilian friend.
Of course there used to be 1 centavo coins in both styles, the old ones being almost the same size as a silver 5 centavos, and the copper ones very tiny indeed, but they are just about extinct now. This has upset one lady I know who used to get very annoyed if she didn’t get exact change to the last centavo when shops started rounding up and down to the nearest 5 centavos as the coins started to be phased out.
Yeah, I guess I’m just too lazy to sort out the proper change using coins – that’s why I end up with even more!
I do feel some sympathy for that lady you know. It reminds me of the story line from Superman 3 when Richard Pryor’s character develops some algorithm to funnel all the remainders (in that case, fractions of cents) into an account. I guess that depending on whether a company adopts the round-up or the round-down policy, they make quite a bit more or less money.
In this discussion about loose change, let me add something from the ‘differences between the USA and Brazil’ vein. In the USA, if you pay for some purchase with coins only, cashiers look at you like you are a piece of dirt. In some cases, if you try to pay with all pennies, nickels, and dimes, as I once did for a 6 dóllar subway sandwich in 2008, they actually refuse the change and insist on paper bills. By contrast, here in Brazil when I pay for something with coins, the cashiers love it, and usually ask me if I have more coins on me they can buy from me with paper reais. The difference, I speculate, is that in the USA there is much more coin in the Money supply, and cashiers typically start their shits with ample currency in coin that they are not depending on any more to come into the drawer so they can continue to make change. In Brazil, it seems that cashiers never have enough coins.
Hey Carlos – good point. I remember having absolutely nightmares in Bolivia and Colombia with high denomination bank notes. Street traders and small restaurants would actually turn away custom rather than break a big note. I remember that the big supermarkets were the only places you could get change. I guess you’re right about cashiers and cobradores here actually loving the change – they certainly don’t love it when I try to pay with a R$100 note! I believe there is actually a law/rule here which says that they have the right to refuse the sale if the value of what you’re buying is less than a certain percentage of the value you’re trying to pay with (i.e. you can’t buy a pack of gum with a R$50 note).
So there I am thinking they despise me for all my coins and I guess they’re actually loving it! :)
But I did grasp your double entendre about being for `less change` in Brazil…… Good one!
Makes me wish I still had those cruzerios , cruzados, and centavos from my trips in the ’80s. . I think I ended up with worthless cruzados in ’89 because the currency had changed, again.
Looks like you have to carry a separate sack just for your bus fare.
Hey Angela – ha ha! I have a good sized zip pocket in my rucksack which I reserve for the small coins now. Whenever I take the bus or the metro, I count out the fare (R$3 and R$3.50) in 5s and 10s as I’m walking to the bus stop or metro station. It’s been a pretty effective strategy in reducing my shrapnel deposits :D
I have lots of coins from my first trip to Rio 25 years ago. Think I’d better throw them away….. Lol rsrs
Awww, I hope you keep one or two as mementos!
Those coins are quite Movemberish if you ask me. And the underlying message is save up your coins to buy a car so not to pester the cobradores. Environmentalists: send your letters to Tom.
Nooooo! You’re killing the whales/seals/rhinos etc… But seriously, cars in cities suck. I say they should ban the lot of them and use the extra space and money for bike lanes and subsidised public transport.
OK excellent, that’s the world’s transport issues sorted. Next week I’ll be solving poverty, pollution and the energy crisis. ;)
:-)
Thanks for clearing up my occasional doubts about why there are so many different designs/sizes for those little critters and for confirming my belief about ‘that obsession’ (my thoughts!) os Brasileiros have with moedas at any given opportunity. Down here in RS, the Zaffari/Bourbon supermarkets always give the benefit of the doubt and round the change down; the Asun chain always round up – even when it’s 1 or 2 centavos. Every Little Helps ;)
Ha ha! You know when I was writing this post, I almost mentioned the whole rounding up or down thing and then I realised I had never really paid enough attention to see if every store, supermarket (etc) does it the same way. I’ve never been a great mathematician, but wouldn’t a large company stand to lose/gain a fairly significant amount of money depending on which rounding policy they adopted?
Street Smart Brazil on Facebook has picked up this post. What fun!
Awesome! I did a guest post for Luciana (of SSB) a year or so ago. It’s a great site :)
LOL at “the Silver Rogues”! Sounds like they could be a team of comic book superheroes. Or not. The 10 and 5 are so similar in size… imagine how annoying it would be for a blind person.
By the way, my “too much change” problems have been solved by the addition of a porquinho to the household. It’s a pleasure to empty my wallet of those 5-centavo coins when I get home.
One other funny change experience – “Aceita balinha?” – when the vendor has no small coins, and they give you 5- or 10-centavo-worth sucking candies in place of change. Or does that only happen in Bahia?
Hey Shayna – long time! Heh heh – I’d buy that comic book! ;)
Aceita balinha is hilarious! I don’t think it’s happened to me, but Mrs Eat Rio says it used to happen to her when she was younger.