78 a hat. In exchange, they received a feathered hat and a bead necklace. But the history of money, told here by the coins in the collection of Santander Cultural, began a little later, in 1532, when the reign of King John III began. It was the beginning of the first period of the currency of Brazil, the Colony, which would last until 1822. Until the creation of the Mint of Bahia in 1694, the units that circulated in the country were Portuguese and, as of 1587, also Spanish, made of silver. THE HEAVIEST the heaviest coin to circulate in the world is Brazilian. At 53.78 grams, the doubloon of 20 thousand réis was coined between 1724 and 1727, in the Mint of Minas Gerais. BURIED In 1640, fearing new conflicts in the Northeast, people buried their money to protect it, which further aggravated the crisis in the Brazilian circulating medium. VARIETY Many foreign coins circulated in Brazil in the colonial period. Among those who came with the first Portuguese fleets were escudos and cruzados, made of gold; reais grossos and chinfrins, made of silver; espadins, reais brancos and cotrins, of billon (copper and silver alloy); justos, of gold; cinquinhos, of silver; and the coinage of King Dom Manoel. Later, the Portuguese brought, among other coins, the pieces of Dom João III, like the doubloons, dobras and cruzadinhos novos. When the Dutch took the Northeast, between the years 1630 and 1654, in order to deal with the lack of money, the invaders had 27,000 florins worth of coins of one soldo, two soldos and shillings sent to Pernambuco. In 1642, a board of finances was created to try to avoid the economic chaos that prevailed in the region. A box from Guinea was opened and, with the gold it contained, coins were first minted in Brazil in 1645 and 1646 in the city of Recife. In quadrangular format, the florins and soldos minted were then called Brazilian ducat. On the obverse, the emblem of the Company of the West Indies; On the reverse, the words Anno, the date 1645, and Brasil. The cash became known as obsidional, an expression that means something like “coins minted during a siege situation.” After a series of conflicts and negotiations, the Dutch were expelled from the Brazilian territory in 1654, when the Portuguese regained the control of the region. Shortly before that, the invaders minted emergency coins from silver plates, which were then forbidden to circulate by the Portuguese Crown. PATACAS Spanish reales were called patacas or Spanish patacas when they arrived in Brazil. Most of the units came from the Mint of Potosi, Peru, at that time under the domination of the European country. Pataca coins were around the longest: 139 years, from 1695 to 1834. Throughout this period, they underwent some modifications to change their values. The most common were the shield, which increased the value of the pieces; the stamp, applied to decrease the value of the coin; remint, the process by which the unit went through a new mint; and the countermark, a sign made on the coin by governments or individuals. Some decades later, the first mint opened in Brazil, built in Bahia in 1694. The decision, however, did not last long, and it was transferred to Rio de Janeiro in 1699; to Pernambuco, in 1700; and again, to Rio in 1703. The coins minted in each of these houses received a mark called a mint mark. Coins minted in Bahia received the letter B; In Minas, the letter M; In Pernambuco, the letter P; and in Rio, the letter R. In the last years of the seventeenth century, the discovery of gold in the Brazilian territory turned the metal into currency. First, in powder, grain, or leaves. Then, in bars. Because of the absence of change in the circulating medium, it was common to use vouchers issued by private individuals, and no matter how much the Empire demanded their withdrawal, they continued to circulate in various formats. In general, they declared the type of work to be performed: worth a beard trim or worth a freight, for example. It was when the foundry houses appeared: the metropolis needed to have more control over the gold of the colony. In these houses, the metal was transformed into bars, which should be recorded. The mine explorers had to pay a fifth of the metals to the Royal Treasury - a tax that became known as the Fifth, which the population of Vila Rica in Minas Gerais would mobilize against in Inconfidência Mineira (Minas Gerais Conspiracy) in 1789. These foundry houses were shut down in 1832. J SERIES In the reign of Dom José I in Portugal and Algarves, from 1750 to 1777, silver coins of 75, 150, 300 and 600 réis were minted in Brazil. to be distinguished from the patacas, they received the inscription of the letter J, which lent its name to the series. THE PIOUS Known at the time as “Maria the Pious” and “Maria the Mad”, Maria I was queen of Portugal and Algarves from 1777 until her death in 1816, and of Brazil, as of the end of 1815. during her reign, she was marked in Brazilian coins. She was portrayed alongside her husband, dom Pedro III, at various times of life. After his death, in 1786, she was represented on her own, wearing a widow’s veil, and n 1789, when her mourning was over, with a headdress adorned with jewels and ribbons.