Paul Glover — Print Your Own Money [The Story of Ithaca Hours]

Twenty-two years ago, I designed colorful paper cash for Ithaca, New York, featuring local children, waterfalls, trolleys, and bugs, printed stacks of it then convinced several thousand people and 500 businesses that it was real money. Since then, millions of dollars worth of Ithaca HOURS have been traded. Each HOUR is worth one hour of basic labor or $10. Professionals can charge multiple HOURS per hour, but we remind residents that all labor is respected. Loans up to $30,000 have been offered interest-free and grants to more than 100 local groups have been made. Community cash enables good things to happen wherever dollars are scarce.
The program made such good sense that it was embraced by Ithaca’s most conservative residents, its most liberal, and most apolitical. That’s because everybody wants more money. We wanted to create more jobs, strengthen small businesses, and stimulate friendly trade. Some of us also wanted to shift economic power to ecological enterprise, especially to organic farms. We wanted to reward peaceful labor instead of warmaking. Some of us used the money to take control of health costs by creating our own grassroots health system. Others of us were eager to trade our skills with people who could become new friends.

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Print Your Own Money
Paul Glover | founder of 18 organizations and campaigns, including HOURS, Philadelphia Orchard Project, Citizen Planners of Los Angeles, and League of Uninsured Voters. He’s the author of six books and a former professor of urban studies at Temple University

Greeks use Euro-free currency in tight economy

A determination to ‘move beyond anger to creativity’ is driving a strong barter economy in some places

In recent weeks, Theodoros Mavridis has bought fresh eggs, tsipourou (the local brandy: beware), fruit, olives, olive oil, jam, and soap. He has also had some legal advice, and enjoyed the services of an accountant to help fill in his tax return.

None of it has cost him a euro, because he had previously done a spot of electrical work – repairing a TV, sorting out a dodgy light – for some of the 800-odd members of a fast-growing exchange network in the port town of Volos, midway between Athens and Thessaloniki.

In return for his expert labour, Mavridis received a number of Local Alternative Units (known as tems in Greek) in his online network account. In return for the eggs, olive oil, tax advice and the rest, he transferred tems into other people’s accounts.

Read the rest at Raw Story
Greece develops cashless, Euro-free currency in tight economy
 by Jon Henley — The Guardian (UK)\

Not actually barter since it is not exchange of goods directly for goods, but rather involves using a local currency as a unit of account and medium of exchange.

This is also the way that barter clubs operate in the US. It actually starts in many clubs as debt-based money. The club extends credit in its unit of account to get the game going and to provide liquidity.

Invitation to join the Feasta Currency Group

What is the Feasta Currency Group?It’s a primarily online Community of Practice (CoP) for local currency advocates (and would-
be advocates) to share experience and information around the development and implementation of local currencies – initially via a Facebook Group and a group email list.

Read it at Feasta

Invitation to join the Feasta Currency Group