Currency of Uruguay Currency of Uruguay This is an outline of Uruguay's monetary history. For the present currency of Uruguay, see Uruguayan peso. Uruguay's currency was initially that common to all of Spanish America. During the struggle over this region, initially between Spain and Portugal, then between Argentina and Brazil, the coinage of both contestants circulated. When the area was annexed to Brazil in 1821 as Provincia Cisplatina, the Portuguese (Brazilian) administration put notes of Banco do Brazil into circulation. This was the first paper money to circulate in Uruguay. Then, in 1826–1828, Argentine troops fighting against Brazil were paid in one-peso notes
Currency Act the debt from King William’s War. Other colonies quickly followed suit, and by 1715 ten of the thirteen had resorted to the issuance of paper currency. Economist Stanley Finkelstein highlights the advantage of paper currency, “that unless it is backed by specie it is cost free currency.” The paper currency depreciated quickly because the colonies printed more than what was taxed out of circulation. By 1740, Rhode Island bills of exchange were only four percent of face value and those of Massachusetts were eleven percent. The money supply was growing at a much faster rate than that of the overall