RG with History Generator

The historical RG: pre-1983 Brazilian identity formats

Before Lei 7.116/1983 standardised the Brazilian cédula de identidade, each state ran its own identity system with its own format, paper stock and (sometimes) its own check-digit rules. This generator produces fixtures in those legacy formats, useful for historians, genealogists, archival digitisation projects and document-OCR test suites that have to handle scanned RGs going back to the 1950s and earlier.

Pre-1937: state-by-state chaos

Until Decreto-Lei 22.694/1933 and its 1937 follow-up, each state had its own civil-identification regulation. Some used letter + number prefixes (e.g. V-1.234.567), others used 7 digits without a check digit, and many still relied on paper booklets with no photograph at all. Photos became standard in the late 1930s; before that, descriptions of physical features (sinais característicos) and handwritten signatures were the primary biometric.

Lei 7.116/1983: the national format

Lei 7.116/1983 unified the cédula: blue plastic-laminated card, photograph, signature, fingerprint, and a state-issued number. Most states adopted 8 digits + 1 check digit with modulo 11 arithmetic and weights 2–9. The check digit can be the digit 0 through 9, or the letter X for the value 10 — a quirk that breaks naive integer-only parsers when scanning historical archives.

Evolution of the physical card

• Paper booklet — up to the 1960s. Photo glued, hand-stamped, no lamination.
• Simple laminated card — 1960s to early 1980s. Photograph, plastic film, no microfilm reference.
• Laminated with microfilm number — 1980s to 2000s. Each card cross-references a microfilm reel held by the state agency; this is what enforces uniqueness within a state but not between states.
• Digital RG — 2010 onward in a few pioneer states (DF, RJ); QR Code linked to a state portal.
• CIN — from 2023, the polycarbonate national ID, ICAO 9303 compliant, anchored on CPF.

Check-digit formulas by state

Each state evolved its own mod-11 variant. The most common, used by São Paulo, runs as follows:

weights = [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
sum     = sum(digit[i] * weights[i] for i in 0..7)
dv      = (sum * 100) mod 11
if dv == 10: dv = 'X'

Other states picked different weight sequences or different residue handling. Some do not publish the formula, which is why generic RG validators usually settle for "8 digits + 1 character" and skip the check-digit verification altogether.

Other historical IDs you may encounter

Researchers digging through older paperwork often run into adjacent documents that look like an RG but are not:

• Carteira de Identidade Militar — armed-forces personnel use a separate identity issued by each branch.
• RNE / RNM — Registro Nacional de Estrangeiros (now Registro Nacional Migratório after Lei 13.445/2017); foreign residents are not issued an RG.
• CTPS (labour card) — until the 1990s, often used as informal ID for everyday transactions.
• Título de Eleitor — civic-rights card; was sometimes shown as ID before the 1988 Constitution narrowed acceptable IDs.

FAQ

Is my old RG still valid? Yes. There is no statutory expiry. The transition rules give legacy RGs validity at least until 2032; banks and KYC counters may complain about a very old photograph but legally the card remains an ID.

How does the historical RG differ from the CIN? Format, materials, technology and uniqueness model. The CIN is polycarbonate, ICAO-compliant, anchored on the CPF and includes a QR Code linking to the gov.br twin. Legacy RGs were paper or laminated plastic, state-numbered, with no national uniqueness guarantee.

If I am a new Brazilian citizen today, do I get an RG or a CIN? CIN. Since 2023, new emissions default to the national format; states do not issue brand-new legacy RGs anymore. The legacy template only survives for renewal requests still allowed during the transition window.

Why was biometric collection introduced? Lei 12.058/2009 made fingerprint collection mandatory at issuance, addressing the duplication loophole created by state-level numbering. The CIN extends this with facial-biometric capture for the digital twin.