Where's Oswaldo Cruz? Right here, on this lovely cruzados note. This series of bills highlighted famous Brazilians, and they’re a diverse and accomplished lot. Dr. Cruz was a noted physician and public health official, the sworn enemy of Plague and Smallpox. The latter lead to a bizarre outburst of public idiocy called the Vaccine Revolt: six days of riots over compulsory vaccination. The riots worked; vaccination was suspended. Four years later, hey presto: a hideous epidemic of smallpox.

This time people were a bit more disposed to Dr. Cruz’s ideas.

He founded a medical research institute which still bears his name, was elected mayor of a small city at the age of 43, and perished a year later.

“Deus seja louvado,” incidentally, is Portuguese for “God is praised.” The phrase occurs on all the bills in this series. The object in the upper right hand corner, however, varies from bill to bill, and reflects the occupation or accomplishment of the bill’s main star. I assume this is some sort of sign of a hospital – it looks like a barber pole, and that used to mean “let us bleed you of your unbalanced humours and cure your maladies.” I assume the same sort of lineage here.