Tools/Local Currency
Local Currency Systems
Ithaca Hours
Considered the most successful local currency in the US, Ithaca Hours is based on a printed currency.
Salt Spring Dollars
Located in the Canadian Gulf Islands, Salt Spring Island has their own printed currency that is 100% exchangeable with Canadian Dollars.
The LETS System (Local Exchange Trading System)
The LETS system is a mutual credit currency that makes electronic currency available as it is needed, in the form of ATM cards. There are over 2500 LET's systems around the world, primarily in Europe and Canada.
Time Dollars
Time Banks USA’s mission is to build local economies and communities that reward decency, caring and a passion for justice.
TimeBucks
We're a social network that uses "time-bucks" to exchange our skills and get things we need. Our currency is designed to reward people and organizations who make positive contributions to society.
The Community Support Dollar (C$D) Project
Development plan for a new sonoma county currency.
The WIR Bank in Switzerland
The WIR Bank started in the depression in 1934 by Swiss businessmen as a form of mutual credit so they could do business with one another, interest-free. It has continued since that time, and over one fourth of all Swiss business is conducted through the WIR bank. Its use tends to increase when the conventional economy is not doing as well (with high unemployment and recession), and diminishes when the traditional economy is booming. Thus, it acts as a stabilizing force and is one of the factors that make the Swiss economy so stable.
Background Information
Community Currencies: A New Tool for the 21st Century
A brief history of alternative currencies from ancient Egypt through the 20th Century by Bernard Lietaer.
Reinventing Money/ Tom Greco
The mission of this site is to demystify money by presenting the best leading-edge ideas on monetary and non-monetary exchange. It is a resource devoted to the advancement of economic democracy, self-determination, and global harmony.
Transaction Net
Complementary Community Currency Systems and Local Exchange Networks.
Organizations
Alliance of Complementary Currencies Enabling Sustainable Societies (ACCESS)
The Access Foundation is an international, educational, non-profit organization dedicated to the betterment of mankind through the understanding and use of complementary monetary innovations.
Current Inovations
Help facilitate the creation and development of complementary currency initiatives that contribute to community sustainability. It is through common unity that economic vitality is strengthened, enhancing prosperity and a thriving social structure.
Schumacher Society
The E. F. Schumacher Society, named after the author of Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered, is an educational non-profit organization founded in 1980. Our programs demonstrate that both social and environmental sustainability can be achieved by applying the values of human-scale communities and respect for the natural environment to economic issues.
Books
Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender
Thomas H. Greco, Jr. 2001
Economia: New Economic Systems To Empower People And Support The Living World
Geoff Davies 2004
No More Throw-Away People: The Co-Production Imperative
Edgar S. Cahn, 2004