When my dad was in Brazil in the 1980s, inflation was horrible. I often got letters from him for which the envelope was covered entirely in stamps. Since the stamps were several months old, the value had declined significantly, and there simply wasn't enough space on the envelope to glue all the required postage after a certain point. (Granted it was international mail, so more expensive than domestic)
I think the currency was replaced every few years by a new one, with the exchange rate of 1000 to 1.
I just found an online article, which provided this nice little summary:
Summary
1942 the
cruzeiro becomes the currancy, replacing the old
reis or
mil reis.
1967 three zeros are dropped and the
cruzeiro becomes the
cruzeiro novo.
1970 the
cruzeiro novo is renamed simply
cruzeiro.
1986 three zeros are dropped and the
cruzeiro becomes the
cruzado.
1989 three more zeros are dropped and the
cruzado becomes the
cruzado novo.
1990 the
cruzado novo is renamed the
cruzeiro with no change in value.
1993 three zeros are dropped from the
cruzeiro which becomes known as the
cruzeiro real.
1994 the
cruzero real is replaced by the
real, worth 2.75 old
cruzeiros reais.
INFLATION in BRAZIL