Has anyone ever come across any of these local Capivari bills from Brazil? About 9 years ago, NPR ran a story on this currency and I have yet to find a single source for it. I asked a dealer that I know in California who deals in funky currency and even he didn't think that he could get his hands on any. As such, they remain a vaporous myth and, for me, only a media rumor.
I find it amusing that a large rodent is the countries choice of what they put on their money. It's also not funny that years ago they brought them here to Maryland eastern shore....these were raised for their fur. And when the fur market crashed the farmers just set them free. So a non native animal who breeds like a rabbit. And these are a good size animal.
I haven’t ever heard of that. There’s plenty of unofficial currencies of countries that don’t officially exist, but this doesn’t look legit. It’s possible that these bills are sort of like Disney dollars, where they’re basically gift certificates that certain merchants accept at face value. The Historic Route 66 Association issues Mother Road Bucks which are spendable as cash at any participating retailer Edit: reading the article my above points seem to apply. They are 1:1 with the Brazil Real, which is how Disney Dollads and another Road Bucks work. IMO, these are considered “circulating gift certificates “
I think they were legit, but extremely regionalized. This article has more information on the 63 some local currencies that then existed. It sounds like the point was to keep the spending local to boost local economies. I'm not saying that it was either a good or a bad idea, I have no idea. Despite all of the mentioned wild capybarys roaming free, which sounds inconvenient for everyone, I've always liked these giant rodent bills or certificates or whatever-they-ares. No doubt their extreme localization makes them pretty hard to come by.
