Brazil’s banknote history spans imperial mil-réis, the early Republic, and a sequence of twentieth-century reforms that introduced the cruzeiro in 1942. Under the Tesouro Nacional, designs balanced national portraiture and classical allegory, while production involved both the state mint Casa da Moeda do Brasil and foreign specialists—most prominently the American Bank Note Company (ABNC). The result is a deep tradition of intaglio craftsmanship and security printing that collectors can trace across decades of economic change.
Archival specimens and proofs preserve the plate exactly as intended—before serials, stamps, and handling. In the 1960s cruzeiro period, front-and-back presentation sheets and margin notations reveal how engraving, tint, and typography were approved for circulation. These plate-true artifacts are often the best way to study mid-century Brazilian engraving at a level of detail that issued notes seldom retain.
The selection below samples this context without repeating card-level descriptions. Use the filters above to pivot by type or year and to compare Tesouro Nacional layouts, ABNC line work, and later Casa da Moeda execution across Brazil’s cruzeiro era.