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Communities in North Carolina, Massachusetts, Arizona and elsewhere print their own money to encourage shoppers to patronize local businesses. Local money was last popular during the Great Depression.
The local bills in the town of Pittsboro, N.C. are known as the Plenty. 15,000 Plenties are in circulation. (The Abundance Foundation)
By Nicholas Riccardi
August 11, 2009
Reporting from Pittsboro, N.C. - The stimulus for this mill town turned artist's colony arrived in the form of green bills bearing sketches of herons, turtles and trees.
A few dozen local businesses banded together this spring to distribute the Plenty -- a local currency intended to replace the dollar. Now 15,000 Plenties are in circulation here, used everywhere from the organic food co-op to the feed store to, starting this month, the Piggly Wiggly supermarket.
Last popularized during the Great Depression, scrip, or locally created stand-ins for U.S. currency, is making a comeback. Pittsboro, population 2,500, is one of a handful of communities that launched its own money in recent months. It reports an avalanche of calls from other communities that have lost faith in the global financial system.
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The rest of the story here:
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-scrip-money11-2009a...
That is a cool idea. I wouldn't be surprised to see similar concepts spring up more and more in the days ahead.