Small Change

"Your change, senhor," said the waiter, tossing onto the marble-topped coffee table: some aspirin tablets, a string of trolley-car tickets and a postage stamp. For months, metal change has disappeared from Brazil's inflation-ridden economy.

It became scarce when hoarders buried and manufacturers melted down copper and nickel coins. Then the Government changed the Brazilian monetary unit from the milreis to the cruzeiro. The paper cruzeiros were ordered printed in the U.S. German submarines sank the entire shipment. But last week an end to Brazil's currency famine was at hand. Frantic officials had rushed a ton of new one and two cruzeiro notes (value: 5-c- and 10-c-) from the U.S. to Rio, hoped presently to retire the aspirin tablets.

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