"Local" currency

**Tiempo** · #1 03/01/10, 07:24 AM

What do you think of this idea?

http://www.annarbor.com/news/think-l...-is-wednesday/

**Ross** · #2 03/01/10, 07:32 AM

Guess it would depend on the quality of the printing, or you`d have counterfeiting. Some of the towns around here have issued coins as local dollars for limited time celebrations. They become keepsakes after their short life as currency. Neat idea.

Wisconsin Ann · #3 03/01/10, 10:21 AM

You can see in the poll at the bottom of the page that it's not well thought of.

So many problems with it. We tried it at a few of the renaissance type fairs I've helped with...and....while most customers that used it thought it was fun...the businesses were less than pleased.

First, they have to agree to accept the "currency". You have to keep the "local" in a separate place, and you usually have to give change in normal money (since the local currency is usually just bills). so...you have maybe hundreds of dollars in the fake paper money. At the end of the day, you go to the exchange and get REAL money. So...it's not just close up shop at the end of the day, you have to keep track of the fake money, exchange it, and hope you didn't lose any of it on the way.

Quite often customers end up taking some of the money home with them...and then they can't use it for anything. Sometimes they keep a coin or bill as a souvenir, but....

And SOMEONE has to pay for making the money. Unless you can get a printer to donate it.

just my 2cents worth.

Heritagefarm · #4 03/01/10, 12:37 PM

I don't think local money is feasible. What I personally think is that we should go back to the gold standard - the main reason for the inflation of the value of the USD is because of paper money! And the government just keeps printing more and more of it!!

geo in mi · #5 03/01/10, 12:51 PM

Best currency is neighbor helping neighbor. I buy your Girl Scout Cookies, you make a contribution to Relay for Life. Last summer my neighbor came down after the big storm to help clear the road of a huge oak tree that fell in front of my house. Guess who is going to get a load of cut and cured oak firewood this Spring? Last week my neighbor plowed out my driveway after a wet snow, before I had a chance to start the snowblower up. I gotta find out his favorite beer this summer. I'm going to clean up a huge pile of oak leaves for my mulch needs--the neighbor is going to get some fresh cabbage and broccoli. That's the kind of currency we can all use more of.

tomstractormag · #6 03/01/10, 03:10 PM

Get the book, >Small is Possible< by Lyle Estill.
Very interesting read.
The town he is in (N or S Carolina) uses a local currency called the plenty.

Tom

Jerngen · #7 03/01/10, 04:35 PM

There are actually quite a few locales using local currency. There was a write-up in either Time or Newsweek on the subject last later Summer/early Fall.

I was browsing area farms on localharvest.org and was surprised to see some accept local currency.

bluetick · #8 03/01/10, 09:31 PM

There has been an alternate currency in Ithaca, NY for several years. Take a look.

http://ratical.com/many_worlds/cc/CED.html

fatrat · #9 03/01/10, 11:10 PM

It's already been tried and the people who did it went to jail and the money was confiscated by the feds. You can make any type of phony money like cupons or such but don't dare make real money out of gold or silver. It was called American Liberty Currency and it was real money, (silver and gold) and the feds under Bush confiscated it, millions of dollars worth of silver and gold owned by common citizens. The feds under Obama will keep it. They have never returned it to the citizens who own it and probably never will. Those who created it went to jail and the average working person who owned silver or gold has lost it all. I had five dollars of silver in it and Bush and Congress took it and Obama will never give it back. I only lost five dollars in silver but others lost hundreds or thousands. That goes to show you that government really has no interest in our best interest. They do not like competition of any sort and do not like the common man being able to get along without them. These people in government are liars and crooks. They only care about power and wealth for themselves and that goes for both parties DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS! So you are safe using only the phoney federal money printed on worthless paper. When it all collapses and is worthless they will cry foul play and blame each other and everyone but themselves. Our money will be worthless but they will still be rich and powerful because that's all that matters to the fools in Washington D.C.

ChristieAcres · #10 03/02/10, 12:41 AM

I am all for bartering as much as possible! Local Currency wouldn't work here. Most businesses are struggling to pay their taxes, employees, and hold their heads above water. They need $$$ to pay everything. It is amazing what you can get via bartering, as we have found out

The Paw · #11 03/02/10, 03:33 AM

it has been some time since I looked into this subject, but as I recall, even 10 years ago most of these projects started moving towards a labour exchange kind of barter model. People provide a service in exchange for credits tracked in a community data base, which can be used to get other registered services. One group measured the value in Community Labour Units. (CLU).

The difficulty with local paper currency (aside from printing and fraud issues) is that it is only really viable if the vendor can use the local currency to cover some of their expenses. Employees can't be required to take compensation in local currency, and if the suppliers to the business are out of area, it makes it really hard for the business to make this a major part of their operation. They usually end up limiting the amount of local currency they will accept as a percentage of each purchase, so it end up working as a 5 or 10 per cent discount.

I think the CLU approach is more flexible, and since it is labour based, people participating are only risking their time.

I like the idea of local currency, but in practice it is really more of an educational tool than an actual dollars-and-cents impact on sales.

rockhound · #12 03/02/10, 05:39 AM

I think local currency would work if it remains small. (remember the Liberty dollar?) Also I wouldn't want to hold much of it, in case the whole scheme goes south unexpectedly.

byexample · #13 03/02/10, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geo in mi

Best currency is neighbor helping neighbor. I buy your Girl Scout Cookies, you make a contribution to Relay for Life. Last summer my neighbor came down after the big storm to help clear the road of a huge oak tree that fell in front of my house. Guess who is going to get a load of cut and cured oak firewood this Spring? Last week my neighbor plowed out my driveway after a wet snow, before I had a chance to start the snowblower up. I gotta find out his favorite beer this summer. I'm going to clean up a huge pile of oak leaves for my mulch needs--the neighbor is going to get some fresh cabbage and broccoli. That's the kind of currency we can all use more of.

Right On. Couldn't agree with you more!

Helena · #14 03/02/10, 07:57 AM

In upstate NY in Ithaca that do have a "sort of" currrency that gives you "money" to spend at local farmers markets and shops. Don't know how it works exactly but they actually had a right up about it many years ago in Mother Earth News magazine. If you ever get a chance to visit this town which also has Cornell University go and enjoy the atmosphere and the beautiful lakes and wineries in the area. But with the local "money" you really have to have the support of the locals to make it work..I personally think it is a good idea to keep local money in the community.

Heritagefarm · #15 03/02/10, 08:56 AM

Actually, our area does something like this, except they use metal money (silver and copper) with the value in PAPER money embossed on them. And it can't be used very many places, and the places that do, we don't go to very often! I just don't get it: you go down to the DoItCenter, give them $20 in PAPER, then you get $20 in silver, which you might spend at Bruces auto shop, or at Morningland Dairy. Doesn't make any sense to me!

ldc · #16 03/02/10, 09:26 AM

The Ithaca, New York local currency system has never been confiscated; it's been in existance 20 yrs I believe. Anyone interested should read up on this long thriving example. ldc

mnn2501 · #17 03/02/10, 10:20 AM

While I like the idea of buying locally - I think the currency idea is stupid.

texican · #18 03/02/10, 11:21 AM

I think the best local currency would be silver coinage... we all know what a dime, quarter, half, and silver dollar look like. It is "alternative", it has value, independent of fiat currency...

I'd accept silver for payment, for just about anything! Paper??? Let me think... what is the relative value of the paper fiat currency vs. toilet paper??? and, will the fiat paper flush down the toilet well? or stop it up?

Of course, I could see situations where toilet paper would indeed be a form of currency... Six months after the world ends (and thus, no more TP) a roll could easily be very very valuable. Alas, I cannot stock TP in my preps.

Beeman · #19 03/02/10, 11:23 AM

This has been done many times before including the company stor type money or tokens. If you go to a coin show there is always someone that is a collector of local currencies.
I also remember an article about this being done downtown Detroit amongst local businesses. You can use US currency and if you elect you can take local currency as change. There was some incentive to using the local currency, like a percentage off of goods and services. This gave the downtown a return customer building tool and a way of tracking return customer activity.