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Floyd County
mints its own money to keep dollars at home
by
John Peters
For Virginia Business
January 2004
Rural
Floyd County, perched along the Blue Ridge Parkway,
is known for its stunning mountain views and picturesque
Mabry Mill restaurant and stone mill. Residents take
pride in the slower pace of the quiet community, where
one of the town doctor’s offices is called the
Barter Clinic. Some even refer to the locality as the
Independent Republic of Floyd. So it’s not surprising
that folks have begun printing and using their own local
currency as a revolt against big businesses building
local stores that export profits to far-away corporate
headquarters. You won’t find any big chain store
accepting the currency, but it’s welcomed at local
businesses such as Blue Nova Computers, The Harvest
Moon Food Store and a few restaurants.
Local residents established Floyd Hours Inc., a nonprofit
organization that prints the blue-colored currency.
The bills are referred to as Floyd Hours, because they
are based on an hour’s worth of work, with each
hour equaling $10. Participants pay $10 (U.S. currency)
to join the program and in exchange get four Hours as
well as a listing in the organization’s directory
and a newsletter. People can also purchase additional
Floyd Hours, using U.S. currency to do so. Once in circulation,
people can obtain Floyd Hours through trades or sales
involving the currency, typically in barter situations.
The currency is legal and taxable as a U.S. dollar.
The beauty of a local currency is that it encourages
money to stay home. “When money leaves an area,
you’re exporting your money. Whenever you do that,
you’re not getting ahead in your area,”
says Dawn Shiner, a spokesperson for Floyd Hours Inc.
Besides, she adds, “This serves as a tool to build
a community” by encouraging a bartering system
through the exchange of Hours, and building acquaintances
and friendships. Say you need someone to build a sign,
but you have no service or good to trade for that work.
A Floyd County resident could pay the craftsman in Floyd
hours if he accepts them. Then the craftsmen could use
the Hours to purchase a good or service from someone
else.
While Floyd may be the only Virginia community with
its own currency, the practice is growing. Paul Glover
helped start a similar practice in Ithaca, N.Y., in
1991. Glover says the Ithaca program, upon which the
Floyd effort is based, was the first in the United States,
with millions of dollars worth of transactions over
the past 13 years. The Ithaca program was a local response
to a national recession, pumping more money into the
local economy and giving more control over that money
to the community. Today, several thousand individuals
and 500 businesses accept Ithaca Hours. The Ithaca effort
has served as a model for more than 50 communities across
America and even some in China, Argentina, and Japan,
among other nations, Glover says.
In Floyd, supporters of the local currency believe the
program will grow over time. “We had our first
issuance on Oct. 15, 2001,” Shiner says. “We
had something like 25 initial members who signed up.
Then we grew into the 40s, 50s, and 60s,” where
the numbers have remained for a time. “It’s
taking time, but the longer we’re here, the more
people will come to accept us,” says Shiner. For
a currency named Hours, time is, no doubt, a strong
ally.
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