> "We didn't understand what it was," says Maria Leopoldina Bierrenbach, a housewife from Sao Paulo. "I used to say it was a fantasy, because it was not real."

> "We didn't understand what it was," says Maria Leopoldina Bierrenbach, a housewife from Sao Paulo. "I used to say it was a fantasy, because it was not real." I was 14 during the URV period. It was like that, nobody really understand what URV was, nor could explain to other what it was. But, it was simple to use. Prices are in URV now, not in the old currency name, not a new currency, it is URV. URV acted as a good parameter, was simple to understand and use in practice, even if hard to understand in theory. It is not that brazilian had lost faith in the currency, but we lost faith in currency changes and readjustment. Brazilian money had changed names several times in the 80s. And several times government had cut zeros from the currency ("Hey, everybody, now 1,000,000 is actualy 1,000 ok?). So there were no point in just creating a new currency. It HAD to be a virtual one, something different, something that people could not say "yeah, just another name change like all the others...". So they created URV, and it worked.