14 different Brazil banknotes paper money UNC AU XF

#1 - 1 cruzeiro banknote issued 1944–1958 (P-132 & P-150) featuring Marquês de Tamandaré, patriarch of the Navy. 

• The Marquês de Tamandaré (1807–1897) was the steady hand of Brazil’s navy during its most volatile 19th-century wars. Born in Rio Grande do Sul, he fought in the Cisplatine conflict, the Ragamuffin War, and—most decisively—the Paraguayan War, where his command helped secure Brazil’s river routes and maritime dominance. Revered for discipline and loyalty to the crown, he was elevated to marquês by Emperor Pedro II, and later became the navy’s symbolic patriarch—his name still carried by warships and institutions as shorthand for naval professionalism and national cohesion.

#2 - 5 cruzeiro banknote issued 1953-1964 (P-142, 158, and 176) featuring the Barão do Rio Branco, the "father of Brazilian diplomacy".

• Barão do Rio Branco (1845–1912) was the cerebral force behind Brazil’s modern borders, a diplomat who treated history and cartography as strategic weapons. As foreign minister from 1902 until his death, he settled tense frontier disputes not with armies but with treaties—most famously winning the Acre region from Bolivia via the 1903 Treaty of Petrópolis and securing Amapá after an arbitration against France. Meticulous, archival-minded, and quietly theatrical in his patriotism, he established Brazil’s enduring preference for legalism and negotiation, earning his posthumous title as the father of Brazilian diplomacy.

#3 - 5 cruzeiro banknote—the note has historically been called the Índio

• Indigenous man; an idealized, non-specific native figure uséd as an allegory of the pre-colonial roots and original peoples of Brazil (not a named person or tribe).
• Man sailing on raft
• On the back, the giant water lily (Victoria amazonica), a massive floating aquatic plant native to the Amazon basin of Brazil, famous for dinner-plate-sized leaves that can support surprising weight. A natural allegory of abundance and scale—the Amazon made visible—signaling the primordial fertility and continental vastness of Brazil.

#4 - 1-cruzeiro banknote issued 1972–1980 (P-191a)

• República, a classical female allegory—modeled on France's Marianne—personifying the Republic of Brazil as a secular, civic ideal of liberty, reason, and national sovereignty (rather than a real woman or deity).
• On the back, the Caixa de Amortização, a Rio de Janeiro landmark, formerly headquarters of the Caixa, created in 1844 under Emperor Pedro II to manage Brazil's national debt through a structured system of repayments and investments. 

#5 - 5-cruzeiro banknote issued 1970–1979 

• featuring Dom Pedro I, the first emperor of Brazil
• On the back, at left, Praça 15 de Novembro, in Rio de Janeiro, in the 18th century.

From the unique family of banknotes appear the same right-side-up or upside-down as they have two of the same image next to each other, inverted:

#6 - 100-cruzeiro banknote 

• The Duque de Caxias, 1803–1880, a prominent Brazilian military leader and statesman, known for his role in the Brazilian Empire's military victories, particularly during the Paraguayan War (1864-1870). Often referred to as the "Patron of the Brazilian Army," he played a significant role in the development and leadership of Brazil's armed forces and was also a key political figure during the Empire and early Republican periods. On the back, a pitched battle regarding Internal Pacification.

#7 - 200-cruzeiro banknote issued 1981–1984 (P-199) "Abolition of Slavery"

• features Princesa Isabel (1846–1921), heir to Brazil’s throne who ruled intermittently as regent—and changed the country forever with a single signature. In 1888, while her father Pedro II was abroad, she enacted the Lei Áurea, abolishing slavery outright and without compensation, a moral act that cost the monarchy its elite support a catalyst for the empire's fall the next year. Devout, resolute, underestimated, she became a national conscience.
• On the back, ex-slaves in the countryside, referring to the Abolition of Slavery.

#8 - 500-cruzeiro banknote issued in 1981–1985 (P-200) 

• Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca, the reluctant general, Brazil’s first president (1889–1891). A monarchist by instinct but a soldier by duty, he led the 1889 coup that deposed Pedro II, then struggled to govern the newborn republic amid economic crisis and military intrigue. His brief, turbulent presidency ended in resignation—leaving behind a republic born less from ideology than exhaustion with the old order.
• On the back, the Proclamation of the Republic by members of parliament

#9 - 100-cruzado banknote

• Features Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (President of the Republic, from 1956-1961 and founder of Brasília the new capital.)
• Electric power transmission station; highway. 
• On the back, Brasília, National Congress; Catetinho (left); Alvorada Palace (right).

#10 - 500-cruzado banknote issued 1986–1988

• Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) on a piano keyboard, at left representing a Victoria amazonica in bloom. Excerpt from the score of the work Uirapuru: "I consider my works as letters that I wrote to posterity without waiting for a response".
• On the back: engraving based on the work of Johann Moritz Rugendas, representing a primitive Brazilian forest on the bank of a river; a canoe. 

#11 - 1000-cruzado banknote issued 1987–1988 (P-213) 

• Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908); emblem of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, a handwritten excerpt from chapter XXXII, "The Retired", from his book, Esaú and Jacó (1904). 
• On the back, a print of Primeiro de Março street in Rio de Janeiro, formerly Direita street, based on a 1905 photo.

#12 - 50 cruzeiros overstamped on a 50-cruzado banknote 

• featuring Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987), with the houses and mountains of Itabira, Minas Gerais state in the background and below, an excerpt from the author's manuscript "Prece de um mineiro no Rio" (Prayer of a Mineiro in Rio).

#13 - 200-cruzeiro banknote 

• República, a classical female allegory—modeled on France's Marianne—personifying the Republic of Brazil as a secular, civic ideal of liberty, reason, and national sovereignty (rather than a real woman or deity).
• celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Republic.
  

Currency #6: 2nd Real (1994-present)

#14 - 2-réais banknote 

• República, a classical female allegory—modeled on France's Marianne—personifying the Republic of Brazil as a secular, civic ideal of liberty, reason, and national sovereignty (rather than a real woman or deity).
• on the back, the marine turtle—the hawksbill (tartaruga-de-pente)—is an allegory of Brazil’s maritime nature and biodiversity, quietly signaling longevity, resilience, and stewardship of the Atlantic Ocean.