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Our Local
Currency Programs
Complementary currencies for a sustainable local
economy. |
Columbia
Dollars is a paper currency that will be 100% backed by US dollars.
Its main purpose is to gently introduce the concept of alternative
currencies to businesses, consumers, and tourists and to
A one dollar note issued by the village of Chatham in 1933. |
build customer
loyalty for local merchants. People will be attracted to the program
as a creative and fun gesture of faith and loyalty to the local economy,
culture, and history of Columbia County. The currency will enhance
Columbia County’s image and will be a draw for visiting tourists,
who may even choose to take the currency home with them as a souvenir.
It will be beautiful to behold and will depict historic scenes, people,
and landmarks of Columbia County. It will employ state-of-the-art anti-counterfeit
technology, including serial numbers, watermarks, and hidden images.
It will function very much like a county-wide gift certificate program.
Each currency series has an expiration date that enables all of the
circulating currency to be called in and redeemed for US dollars, and
the program can be reevaluated at that point. Any unredeemed US dollars
in our trust account will be granted or loaned out to businesses and
organizations of Columbia County. |
 Farm Notes are an innovative way of capitalizing local agriculture.
They were developed and implemented successfully in Great Barrington
in 1990 by the Self Help Association for Regional Economies (SHARE).
SHARE lent the notes in the late fall to two local farms, the Corn
Crib and Taft Farms, which in turn sold the notes to the public for
9 dollars, for redemption of 10 dollars worth of farm produce during
the following summer and fall. In winter, when the redemption period
was over, the farmers repaid their loans in redeemed notes or in US$.
What this amounted to was a local bond issue. The notes, however, were
designed to circulate as a currency that was backed by the productive
capacity of those farms. Farm notes could also be an innovative way
to connect government services with the local economy. For instance,
the SHARE program attracted the attention of the local Women, Infants,
and Children (WIC) program, which made use of the notes as an alternative
food stamp. This approach doubled the effectiveness of the government
funding: it provided farmers with affordable, flat-rate credit and
gave mothers living in poverty access to fresh, locally grown farm
produce. Further along, we plan to expand the Farm Notes idea to handle
larger-scale investment capital for productive loans to businesses
other than farms. |
| Columbia Mutual Credit System |
Columbia MCS is a barter system that will allow businesses and consumers
to trade using electronic MCS cards, MCS checks, and an online accounting
system. Trillions of dollars worth of business is conducted yearly
across the globe by numerous commercial barter networks based on mutual
credit. In this system individual accounts start at zero. Whenever
a seller makes a transaction, the seller’s account is credited
against the buyer’s  account. If the seller is selling something
for 50 credits, the seller’s account is +50 and the buyers account
is -50. In this way participants grant each other credit without the
need for interest or collateral. Credit limits prevent potential abuse
of the system and can be adjusted according to credit-worthiness. One
advantage of this kind of currency system over conventional money is
that there is no intrinsic shortage of money to engage in a transaction.
For instance, a business or farm may have plenty of assets or a large
productive capacity, but its ability to thrive is diminished by the
cost of acquiring cash to trade with other businesses in the local
economy. Mutual credit systems greatly decrease the cost of working
capital. |
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Farm Notes are an innovative way of capitalizing local agriculture.
They were developed and implemented successfully in Great Barrington
in 1990 by the Self Help Association for Regional Economies (SHARE).
SHARE lent the notes in the late fall to two local farms, the Corn
Crib and Taft Farms, which in turn sold the notes to the public for
9 dollars, for redemption of 10 dollars worth of farm produce during
the following summer and fall. In winter, when the redemption period
was over, the farmers repaid their loans in redeemed notes or in US$.
What this amounted to was a local bond issue. The notes, however, were
designed to circulate as a currency that was backed by the productive
capacity of those farms. Farm notes could also be an innovative way
to connect government services with the local economy. For instance,
the SHARE program attracted the attention of the local Women, Infants,
and Children (WIC) program, which made use of the notes as an alternative
food stamp. This approach doubled the effectiveness of the government
funding: it provided farmers with affordable, flat-rate credit and
gave mothers living in poverty access to fresh, locally grown farm
produce. Further along, we plan to expand the Farm Notes idea to handle
larger-scale investment capital for productive loans to businesses
other than farms.
info@ccasle.org