Local Currencies Discussion

Local Currencies discussion

Although the general publicity to Transition Initiatives has included a lot
about local currencies in Totnes and Lewes these are still the only
Transition Initiative that have launched local currencies. One is being
prepared in Brixton in London but is still yet to be launched. No across city
local currencies exist in the UK.

Is it feasible to launch a local currency at this stage in Nottingham -
considering the time and resources that would be involved to launch it.

The financial costs of issuing the Lewes banknote were considerable because
the same company was used that prints Bank of England bank notes and a
watermark security system was used. Thus costs were about 30p(?) per bank
note. However these costs were covered because collectors bought about a
thousand and then, because the notes were part of collections/souvernirs they
were effectively subsequently withdrawn from circulation. About a thousand
were brought in this way which thus covered the costs of printing. Whether
souvenir collectors would obligingly pay the costs of a possible Nottingham
note in this way is unknown.

This still involves quite a large upfront capital cost in launching a scheme.

In smaller towns like Totnes and Lewes it is possible to cover and enrol the
support of a large proportion of local businesses but enrolling an equivalent
proportion in Nottingham would be much more difficult. A 133 businesses are
enrolled in Lewes but the currency started with a much smaller number of
businesses signed up (60?).

A survey of businesses involved in the Lewes scheme found that 50% thought
that their involvement in the currency had increased their overall turnover.

Would it be more feasible to launch a local currency in an area like Sneinton
rather than attempting to launch it city wide? It might then be possible to
launch a currency in other districts on the same basic principles and grow
the systems together.

Another area that was mentioned was Netherfield as a group in Netherfield have
developed quite a good relationship with businesses in the area and enrolled
many businesses to hand out re-useable carrier bags? Would this group and
these businesses be interested in a Netherfield currency? (NB It's important
to note that this is not a Transition Group doing this so perhaps its cheeky
to suggest this before talking to the people involved).

Selling points of local schemes - they promote local business and effectively
mean that money has to spent in an area. In Lewes businesses use the
currency as part of their marketing strategies (eg the local brewery). One
strategy is to offer to part accept local currency in payment at particular
times when trade is normally low.

The environmental and energy selling point is that by promoting exchange -
where local needs are met with local supplies less energy is used and a more
resilient local economy is promoted. Where an economy becomes dependent on a
few large scale companies that are part of the international economy the
local economy is wiped out if the large companies uproot and move elsewhere.

Community level resilience, people getting to know each other and what people
can do for each other, can also be developed by time banks, skills exchanges
and LETS schemes. These are more community, person to person based,
exchanging labout skills, but don't usually draw businesses trading actual
goods. That's where a currency comes in. However there are cases (eg in
Germany) where one can part exchange the units of a skills exchange and the
units of a local currency.

Normally, though not always, local currencies can be purchased using national
currencies and can be converted back into national currencies. There is no
problem with businesses converting their local currencies back into sterling
as long as there is an equal or greater number of the local currency being
purchased with sterling and put into circulation. Exchange into and out of a
local currency like this can be quite active.

There was a discussion about whether, if bigger companies like TESCOs or ASDA
adopted the local currency this would undermine its ethos and purpose. If
such companies only ever exchanged the currency back into sterling this would
not be helpful. However where it meant that local companies are using the
local currencies earned by spending them locally this would be. In the case
of Argentinia, where provincial authorities issued provincial currencies like
the Patacon, big companies did accept the local currencies and could use them
locally - eg paying local workers partly in them, buying local supplies
sourced locally.

This raised the point that a city wide currency might be launched by the local
authorities but there is no indication that the city council currently
supports a local currency.