re: your parenthetical, this Planet Money episode (http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil http://www.npr.org/section

re: your parenthetical, this Planet Money episode (http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-f...), describes Brazil's real, which was introduced as essentially that - an inflation-proof currency, replacing the cruzeiro, which was destroyed by hyper-inflation.