Currency of Uruguay moneda national" (peso national currency). The economy picked up after 1876 and the 1880s were a period of prosperity and expansion. Internal peace was achieved in 1884, and there was a heavy influx of foreign capital. The Reus Law of 1887 made it easy to establish new banks (the most important of which was Banco Nacional). While Uruguay's neighbors, Argentina and Brazil, were obliged to use inconvertible paper currency, Uruguay continued to use gold. By 1889 the flow of foreign capital was drying up, and the prices paid for Uruguay's exports were falling. Gold was leaving the country, and Banco
Currency mostly paper, but Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation developed the world's first polymer currency in the 1980s that went into circulation on the nation's bicentenary in 1988. Now used in some 22 countries (over 40 if counting commemorative issues), polymer currency dramatically improves the life span of banknotes and prevents counterfeiting. Currency use is based on the concept of lex monetae; that a sovereign state decides which currency it shall use. Currently, the International Organization for Standardization has introduced a three-letter system of codes (ISO 4217) to define currency (as opposed to simple names or currency signs), in