Could a local currency actually work? My town's experiment with 'Maple Bucks'

I've been reading about local currencies as a way to reset how money works in small communities. My town in Vermont tried something called 'Maple Bucks' a few years back where you could earn them by volunteering and spend them at 15 local shops. It fell apart after 6 months because nobody could agree on the exchange rate with dollars. But I'm wondering if the idea is just ahead of its time. Has anyone seen a local currency system that actually stuck around?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancyg1429d ago

Did the exchange rate really kill it though? I used to think local currency was a gimmick, but then I saw the Ithaca Hours thing in New York and it totally changed my mind. They've been running since the 90s and folks just agree that one Hour equals $10, no haggling. It works cause you keep it simple and don't try to peg it to the dollar every week. Maybe your town overcomplicated it with that floating rate nonsense.

jamief6729d ago

Yeah, was the floating rate the issue? We pegged ours to the minimum wage and it held steady for years, no drama.

sean85429d ago

Good point @nancyg14 about keeping it simple. But the real killer wasn't the rate itself. It was trust. Once people saw the rate change every month, they stopped believing the currency had real value. Ithaca Hours worked because nobody questioned the $10 peg. Your town's floating rate made people nervous. They'd rather hold dollars than something that might be worth less next week.