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A Plan For Hard Times: Print Cash --- NEWSWEEK
Hello
On the story below. I notice the remarks "From the magazine issued dated Dec 1, 2008". Do they mean, "For the magazine issued dated Dec 1, 2008"? The remarks "a progressive enclave of Milwaukee", is also unusual wording to use in a story. It suggest that they are a democratic territory, and not a local community of Milwaukee. enclave = territory progressive = democratic As for me, I want demand notes and coins issued from the U.S. Treasury. They are reconized everywear as legal tender. In God We Trust -- All others "cash only". ---------------------------------- FROM: http://www.newsweek.com/id/170372 A Plan For Hard Times: Print Cash By Tony Dokoupil NEWSWEEK Published Nov 22, 2008 From the magazine issue dated Dec 1, 2008 People nationwide may start hoarding their cash as recession fears grow. But in Riverwest-a progressive enclave of Milwaukee-residents have another answer to their money trouble: they'll print their own. The proposed River Currency would be used like cash at local businesses, keeping the area economy humming whatever the health of the country at large. "We can create our own value," explains Sura Faraj, 48, one of the plan's organizers. It's an attractive idea when times are tight. Communities print what look like ordinary bills with serial numbers, anti-counterfeiting details and images of local landmarks (the Milwaukee River, for instance) instead of presidential portraits. Residents benefit through an exchange system: 10 traditional dollars, for instance, nets them $20 worth of local currency. And when businesses agree to value the funny money like real greenbacks, they also get a free stack to kick-start spending. It's all perfectly legal (except for coins) as long as it's not for profit and the bizarro dinero doesn't resemble the real thing. Dozens of such systems flourished during the Great Depression. In the 1990s, they re-emerged as a way to fight globalization by keeping wealth in local hands. Now the dream of homespun cash is back because it keeps people liquid even if they're unemployed or short on traditional dollars. (The U.S. Treasury declined to comment on the burgeoning interest in local currency systems.) In the past month, Steve Burke, who runs Ithaca Hours, a currency system in upstate New York founded in 1991, has fielded calls from a half-dozen organizers hoping to mint their own money in Vermont, Hawaii and Michigan, among other places. Meanwhile, Susan Witt, who directs the nonprofit behind the BerkShares currency in Berkshire County, Mass., has heard from groups in New York, California and New Jersey, where last year Newark's city hall asked for advice on potential Newark Bucks. Since BerkShares launched in 2006, almost $2 million has been exchanged for cash, and the equivalent of $180,000 is in circulation. "You can get a divorce, plan a funeral and go to just about any restaurant in town," Witt says. The biggest downside? Taxes. Even in the parallel world of earning and spending alternative currencies, Uncle Sam gets his cut. ... |
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A Plan For Hard Times: Print Cash --- NEWSWEEK
My February 2009 column for The Numismatist will be about Depression
Scrip with Rod Charlton's website being the featured link. The Newsweek article referred to "dozens" of these during the Previous Great Depression. I think that the standard reference -- The Standard Catalog of Depression Scrip of the United States by Ralph Mitchell and Neil Shafer -- lists well over 100, too many to count conveniently, that's for sure. I worked on this project back in 2002-2003: www.baybucks.com Wooden nickels got their start as a kind of Depression Scrip, wooden slats, in the town of Tenino (10-Nine-0: 10,900 feet above sea level) Washington. As long as it works, it works. One problem is establishing a basis for value. It is a problem not always solved well and these local currencies have a varied history of successes. Ithaca Time Dollars have been running for over 15 years now. Other efforts are usually less successful as the "engines" of the project, the activists and advertisers, move on to other interestes. If a currency has an _objective_foundation_, it tend to be stronger. Gold is an obvious choice. Since most chambers of commerce, city governments, and food co-ops tend not to inventory gold, they search for something else. In Lansing, Michigan, during the Last Depression Before This One, the local currency came from the Board of Water and Light. They paid their employees 25% in scrip and as payment for water and light, (current currency, I guess) the money was accepted around town. |
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A Plan For Hard Times: Print Cash --- NEWSWEEK
This is an opportunity for numismatists. My experience -- recorded in
part in the Archives of the Michigan State Numismatic Society website at www.michigancoinclub.org -- was that liberals and progressives tend not to have good relationships with money. When it comes to design and creation, they have a lot of common ideas, but few facts. Just to say, for Bay Bucks, these people "had heard" of Depression Scrip, but had not seen any. I went to the coin store and asked the coin guys and they lent me some to take to meetings. The community organizers did not know where to find out about money. It is not what they do. It might be painting "them" with too broad a brush, but their hatred of capitalism and capitalists leaves them behind the production possibilities curve. So, if this is interesting to you and you want to design a local currency, find your local alternative progressive tree-huggers at the food co-op. You can always get paid in the scrip you help create. I did. |
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A Plan For Hard Times: Print Cash --- NEWSWEEK
On Nov 23, 12:33*pm, Mike Marotta wrote:
I worked on this project back in 2002-2003: *www.baybucks.com That was really www.baybucks.org -- dot ORG, not dot com -- sorry... "The Traverse Area Community Currency Corporation (TACCC) is a nonprofit organization, democratically run by a small board of directors, all of whom are working on this project for love of the community and from a sense of adventure. Bay Bucks volunteers are interested in keeping the money circulating and will work with Bay Bucks members to find, or enlist suppliers or service providers who accept Bay Bucks. Doing this, we hope, will help weave together small business commerce in our region, and help establish a preference for it on the part of consumers in the region. Bay Bucks can identify opportunities for import substitution and help personalize our local economy. --- http://www.baybucks.org" |
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A Plan For Hard Times: Print Cash --- NEWSWEEK
Hello Mike Marotta
I read all three of your postings. I support a strong single national currency system for the Unites States. The ideal of having local non-governmental currency does not serve the Nation well. The right, in many jurisdictions, of a trader to refuse to do business with any person means a purchaser cannot demand to make a purchase, and so declaring a legal tender other than for debts would not be effective. In my view it is a Barter Systems. Barter is a type of trade in which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods and/or services, without the use of money. The real issue to me is "Legal Tender" Acceptance. It is true the at basic Framework of the United States Constitution gives Congress the following. U.S. Constitution http://www.house.gov/house/Constitut...stitution.html (On Coinage Of Money - Not Demand Notes/Paper Money) Section 8, Clause 5, and Clause 6 (On States) Section 10, Clause 1 In 1798, Vice President Thomas Jefferson wrote that the federal government has no power "of making paper money or anything else a legal tender," and he advocated a constitutional amendment to enforce this principle by denying the federal government the power to borrow. During the American Civil War, the federal government was unable to pay its debts with gold or silver coin, so began to issue paper notes to pay its debts; when people refused to accept them in payment, Congress adopted the Legal Tender Act of 1862, compelling them to do so. Thus forced to accept federal notes, the recipients wanted to be able to use them to pay their own debts, and this led to litigation. The United States Supreme Court, with the support of judges recently appointed by President Ulysses S Grant, held that paper money can be legal tender, in the Legal Tender Cases, ranging from 1871 to 1884. The United States Coinage Act of 1965 states (in part): United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts. 31 U.S.C. § 5103. This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. .... "Mike Marotta" wrote in message ... This is an opportunity for numismatists. My experience -- recorded in part in the Archives of the Michigan State Numismatic Society website at www.michigancoinclub.org -- was that liberals and progressives tend not to have good relationships with money. When it comes to design and creation, they have a lot of common ideas, but few facts. Just to say, for Bay Bucks, these people "had heard" of Depression Scrip, but had not seen any. I went to the coin store and asked the coin guys and they lent me some to take to meetings. The community organizers did not know where to find out about money. It is not what they do. It might be painting "them" with too broad a brush, but their hatred of capitalism and capitalists leaves them behind the production possibilities curve. So, if this is interesting to you and you want to design a local currency, find your local alternative progressive tree-huggers at the food co-op. You can always get paid in the scrip you help create. I did. |
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A Plan For Hard Times: Print Cash --- NEWSWEEK
So, if this is interesting to you and you want to design a local
currency, find your local alternative progressive tree-huggers at the food co-op. �You can always get paid in the scrip you help create.. �I did. So Mike, did you add the scrip to your collection, or did you buy something with it? If so, what? Bob Leonard |
#7
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A Plan For Hard Times: Print Cash --- NEWSWEEK
On Nov 23, 7:11 pm, Bob wrote:
So Mike, did you add the scrip to your collection, or did you buy something with it? If so, what? Bob Leonard When shopping around Traverse City, we made a point of getting our change in BayBucks. I have sold some complete sets to other numismatists. I have given out about twenty BB1 notes. Not only do I know the numbers -- they are published -- but I have a feel for what 1000 notes will be worth when 990 of them are circulated and 10 are not. If anyone wants to collect this stuff, most of the currency committees sell it for face to numismatists. Arizona Coin Collector From: "Arizona Coin Collector" Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:17:14 -0700 I read all three of your postings. I support a strong single national currency system for the Unites States. The ideal of having local non-governmental currency does not serve the Nation well. We have different opinions on this, clearly. Also, we have divergent understandings of what "legal tender" means. Ron Paul, for instance, insists that you MUST accept government money as "legal tender" but that is not true as a visit to the Treasury website will attest: "There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy." http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq...l-tender.shtml I agree with you that one of the three aspects that define money is its acceptability and therefore the more widely a medium of exchange (of indirect barter) is recognized, the better it is. The dollar and the euro are nearly universal currencies. Someday soon, there will be the "terran" whatever it will be called. That said, one size does not fit all. We tend to shop at natural food stores and have served on the boards of food co-ops. But we eat at McDonald's, too... Zillions served... So, too, with money. Sometimes, you want a currency that stays closer to home. Not all should, but some can. Mike M. MIchael E. Marotta |
#8
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A Plan For Hard Times: Print Cash --- NEWSWEEK
In article , Arizona Coin Collector wrote: FROM: http://www.newsweek.com/id/170372 kick-start spending. It's all perfectly legal (except for coins) as long as it's not for profit and the bizarro dinero doesn't resemble the real thing. Dozens of such systems flourished Huh? Lots of private coins are stamped out for arcades, car washes, Renaissance Festivals, etc. -- Please reply to: | "One of the hardest parts of my job is to pciszek at panix dot com | connect Iraq to the War on Terror." Autoreply is disabled | -- G. W. Bush, 9/7/2006 |
#9
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A Plan For Hard Times: Print Cash --- NEWSWEEK
CoinWorld just had a story (11/17/08) about a
local currency in Lewes England. The greatest demand for the notes is coming from collectors. So much demand, they are doing another run of 10,000 notes. Now that governments and their pig face bankers are here to help, we're almost assured of another Great Depression. IMO, community script will become a collecting "craze" as big or bigger than the commemorative half craze during the the last Great Depression. ************************************************** * "Paper [money] is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it."--Francisco d' Anconia Atlas Shrugged--Ayn Rand ************************************************** *** "Arizona Coin Collector" wrote in message m... Hello On the story below. I notice the remarks "From the magazine issued dated Dec 1, 2008". Do they mean, "For the magazine issued dated Dec 1, 2008"? The remarks "a progressive enclave of Milwaukee", is also unusual wording to use in a story. It suggest that they are a democratic territory, and not a local community of Milwaukee. enclave = territory progressive = democratic As for me, I want demand notes and coins issued from the U.S. Treasury. They are reconized everywear as legal tender. In God We Trust -- All others "cash only". ---------------------------------- FROM: http://www.newsweek.com/id/170372 A Plan For Hard Times: Print Cash By Tony Dokoupil NEWSWEEK Published Nov 22, 2008 From the magazine issue dated Dec 1, 2008 People nationwide may start hoarding their cash as recession fears grow. But in Riverwest-a progressive enclave of Milwaukee-residents have another answer to their money trouble: they'll print their own. The proposed River Currency would be used like cash at local businesses, keeping the area economy humming whatever the health of the country at large. "We can create our own value," explains Sura Faraj, 48, one of the plan's organizers. It's an attractive idea when times are tight. Communities print what look like ordinary bills with serial numbers, anti-counterfeiting details and images of local landmarks (the Milwaukee River, for instance) instead of presidential portraits. Residents benefit through an exchange system: 10 traditional dollars, for instance, nets them $20 worth of local currency. And when businesses agree to value the funny money like real greenbacks, they also get a free stack to kick-start spending. It's all perfectly legal (except for coins) as long as it's not for profit and the bizarro dinero doesn't resemble the real thing. Dozens of such systems flourished during the Great Depression. In the 1990s, they re-emerged as a way to fight globalization by keeping wealth in local hands. Now the dream of homespun cash is back because it keeps people liquid even if they're unemployed or short on traditional dollars. (The U.S. Treasury declined to comment on the burgeoning interest in local currency systems.) In the past month, Steve Burke, who runs Ithaca Hours, a currency system in upstate New York founded in 1991, has fielded calls from a half-dozen organizers hoping to mint their own money in Vermont, Hawaii and Michigan, among other places. Meanwhile, Susan Witt, who directs the nonprofit behind the BerkShares currency in Berkshire County, Mass., has heard from groups in New York, California and New Jersey, where last year Newark's city hall asked for advice on potential Newark Bucks. Since BerkShares launched in 2006, almost $2 million has been exchanged for cash, and the equivalent of $180,000 is in circulation. "You can get a divorce, plan a funeral and go to just about any restaurant in town," Witt says. The biggest downside? Taxes. Even in the parallel world of earning and spending alternative currencies, Uncle Sam gets his cut. .. |
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A Plan For Hard Times: Print Cash --- NEWSWEEK
On Nov 24, 1:03 am, (Paul Ciszek) wrote:
Huh? Lots of private coins are stamped out for arcades, car washes, Renaissance Festivals, etc. They are TOKENS not money -- they are substitutes for money, not money per se. It is a fine point, perhaps, but one that is verbatim from the US Code. You can make your own paper money. You cannot coin your own metal money. It is the way the law is written. Moreover, here in the hobby of numismatics, there is a pretty strong concsensus among the leaders -- by that I mean the people who put into this hobby money orders of magnitude greater than collectors do -- that the word "COIN" is specifically limited to a narrow range of objects. You can argue it if you wish -- and I have -- but the fact remains that you cannot place an ad in Coin World or Numismatic News for "Coins of Videoplace" or "Coins of Themeland" or "Festival Coins" or "Coins of the Professional Sports League." Those entities cannot issue coins, by definition. (Don't argue with _me_ -- I understand your point of view; I concur -- that's the law and the hobby leaders all agree.) Mike M. Michael E. Marotta |
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