Monday, February 26, 2007

Spare Change

Apparently a Massachusetts town has created its own currency.

This is the coolest thing ever. That is all.

5 comments:

Michael said...

It is amazing what people will get together to do.

The key, of course, was getting banks to agree to back the "Berkshares" with US dollars. Without that backing, they'd be nothing.

But what happens when someone with a good laser printer starts counterfeiting the Berkshares?

Is that an issue for the Secret Service?

Anonymous said...

It should be no surprise to you that Carrboro has their own currency, too: http://www.ncplenty.org/home.php
~Jamie

Ben said...

Um....can they do that? Didn't we write a Constitution to replace the chaos that happened when states printed their own currency under the Articles of Confederation?

Jeff said...

As long as it is redeemable for U.S. dollars, it's legal.

Unknown said...

Ben, wouldn't the difference be that under the Articles of Confederation, the states' currency wasn't legally backed by currency at the federal level?

I think the more accurate analogy is game tokens at an arcade -- US currency is used to buy the tokens at the door and, once inside, the tokens become the main currency. Seems like to me, this whole Berkshares thing "entices" (encourages?) citizens into spending more money than they probably would have done otherwise: be it, because it feels like they're holding "Monopoly money" or they're supporting local interests.