The creditor who did accept them found himself with paper in his possession which could not be passed over the counter or paid into a checking account at his bank, and his only recourse was to sell the bills for what they would fetch, bearing the loss between their face value and market price. Although the bills bear interest at five and six per cent, almost the only buyers were the banks which had borrowed money of the Emergency issue, for in the meantime the Government agreed to accept the Bills as repayment of these sums, in a “curso libre,” or (limited) legal tender.[[17]] The price of the Treasury bills was always below par, and the writer saw them quoted in Brazilian newspapers as low as seventy-six. Buying at this or higher prices the bankers were able to present them to the Government at their face value in payment for currency advances, and were thus in the fortunate position of making profits on borrowed money. Promptly labelled “sabinas” in this country where everything has a nickname, the Treasury Bills roused a storm of discussion in the press. Totals of bonds (apolicies) and paper money issued from August 1915 to October 1916 amounted to nearly 550,000 contos.
In late 1916, the total currency of the Republic stood as regards paper money at 1,551,122:650$500, over a million contos being inconvertible. It may be useful here to explain the manner in which Brazilian money is counted. It is, like the Spanish from which most American systems are derived, very simple, based as it is on the decimal plan. The theoretical single rei or real does not exist, the smallest coin now consisting of the nickel one hundred reis.[[18]]
There is also a coin of two hundred reis, which pays a car fare or buys the Jornal do Commercio, and 400 reis, and a silver 500 reis. The silver milreis is what it says it is, one thousand reis, and any sum reckoned in milreis and below a thousand of them is written with the figures first, followed by the “dollar” sign; thus four hundred milreis is written 400$000.
One thousand milreis (a million reis) is a conto, the colon sign being written immediately after it. Six contos is written 6:000$000. The present exchange value of the conto is a little over fifty pounds sterling.
The following figures, extracted from reckonings made by the Brazilian Review, show some of the variations in paper currency:
| December, | 1889 | 195.485:538$ |
| „ | 1894 | 367.358:625$ |
| „ | 1899 | 733.727:153$ |
| „ | 1904 | 673.739:908$ |
After the establishment of the Conversion Office a new element, convertible paper, was added:
| Inconvertible | Convertible | Total | |
| 1907 | 643.531:727$ | 100.032:700$ | 743.564:427$ |
| 1912 | 607.025:525$ | 406.035:800$ | 1.013.061:325$ |
| 1914 | 822.496:018$ | 157.786:930$ | 980.282:948$ |
| 1916 | 1.060.562:720$ | 94.559:930$ | 1.155.122:650$ |
Issues of paper money during war years greatly increased this currency, but against it the Government held, in 1921, nearly 63 million contos of gold, in the Treasury and Conversion Office. Besides this amount of paper there is the coin circulation of nickel, and of silver in half-milreis, milreis, and multiples.
It is an excellent coinage, of good design, well made and convenient, that minted since the Republic bearing republican devices, the date of inauguration of the new administrative plan, etc. But now and again a handful of change contains a coin bearing the bearded head of Dom Pedro II, for it is but twenty-seven years since the Empire was ended. A curious superstition exists among some Brazilians with regard to these coins; received, they are never passed on, but carefully put away in some drawer: “it is not good to spend the Emperor,” they will tell you, handling his image with kindliness.