http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNew...530157720070619?feedType=RSS&rpc=22

"I just love the feel of using a local currency," said Trice Atchison, 43, a teacher who used BerkShares to buy a snack at a cafe in Great Barrington, a town of about 7,400 people. "It keeps the profit within the community."

There are about 844,000 BerkShares in circulation, worth $759,600 at the fixed exchange rate of 1 BerkShare to 90 U.S. cents, according to program organizers. The paper scrip is available in denominations of one, five, 10, 20 and 50.

read this last night. awesome! new yorkers are going to take them home and leave them berkshares less.

i'm gonna start using monopoly money to buy my lunch

ithaca ny has the same thing

This fucking rules.

Worcester has its on currency too... its called "Food Stamps"

Plympton only uses condensed horse shit coins.

blumpkin?

wonder if you can buy weed with "berkshares"?

HAHA!

I hear the pube exchange rate in Colorado is pretty decent.

i was watching Modern Marvels on money, and it went over how back in the early days of the US, currencies were exclusive to cities/regions, and it was a disaster. you couldn't use the currency from one region in another due to exchange rate differences, and it lead to chaos. this is a terrible idea.

it's only for use in their community though. It's not like they all get paid in berkshares and that's the only money they have hahaha. It's just a way to keep more money circulating in smaller companies as opposed to national chains.

it works idealistically, but that wouldn't work over time. it'll be like Itchy and Scratchy bucks. its like regular money, except its....fun.

if it was done this way i don't think it would be the same though. they buy berkshares with american dollars and in turn can use them only in places where they are accepted, and dollars are still accepted there as well. it's a cool alternative that gives money to the towns for public systems and gives an incentive for local businesses to participate as well as encourages the citizens to support them. in the end, the same amount of dollars is still spent, just within a smaller system.

dirty hippies.