The Complementary Currency Resource base website lists 166 complementary currency systems, with 340,000 members serving geographical areas representing 5,410,441,567 people that have registered around the world since 1982. Of those, 101 have registered since 2000. According the Complementary Currency Resource centre, the annual volume of trade for these currencies is in the region of US £56 million.
One of the world’s most successful complementary paper currencies is the Berkshare. Since the Berkshare was launched in 2006, more than $2.5 million in Berkshares have been circulated.
Other approaches include the Wir – short for Wirtschaftsring (‘economic circle’) – Europe’s oldest bartering operation, aiming specifically at smaller companies. It is so widespread in Switzerland that it amounts to a virtual currency in parallel to the Swiss franc. Wir started in 1934, by 1993, it had a turnover of £12 billion and 65,000 corporate members. Wir is a barter system, but using a currency all of its own, so that people exchange goods and services inside the circle, without using Swiss Francs. They create the money by going into debt to each other, and then must pay it off by providing services for others.
Local Economic Trading Schemes (LETS) are another way that enable people to exchange goods and services without using sterling. LETS are trading networks that use their own currency for exchange. It means people can trade or work without cash. By the early 1990s there were 200 LETS banks in Australia, starting with the alternative community of Maleny in Queensland, and moving on to what became the largest system of its kind in the world – Blue Mountain LETS – with 2,000 members. There are now almost 400 LETS ‘banks’ in Britain and an estimated 35,000 people take part. Many of the LETS banks in the UK specialise in different sectors. In Kings Lynn, it is crafts; in Brighton it is repairs, cars and building work; in West Wiltshire, it is health.
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The Complementary Currency Resource base website lists 166 complementary currency systems, with 340,000 members serving geographical areas representing 5,410,441,567 people that have registered around the world since 1982. Of those, 101 have registered since 2000. According the Complementary Currency Resource centre, the annual volume of trade for these currencies is in the region of US £56 million.
The Berkshare
One of the world’s most successful complementary paper currencies is the Berkshare. Since the Berkshare was launched in 2006, more than $2.5 million in Berkshares have been circulated.
The Wir
Other approaches include the Wir – short for Wirtschaftsring (‘economic circle’) – Europe’s oldest bartering operation, aiming specifically at smaller companies. It is so widespread in Switzerland that it amounts to a virtual currency in parallel to the Swiss franc. Wir started in 1934, by 1993, it had a turnover of £12 billion and 65,000 corporate members. Wir is a barter system, but using a currency all of its own, so that people exchange goods and services inside the circle, without using Swiss Francs. They create the money by going into debt to each other, and then must pay it off by providing services for others.
Local Economic Trading Schemes
Local Economic Trading Schemes (LETS) are another way that enable people to exchange goods and services without using sterling. LETS are trading networks that use their own currency for exchange. It means people can trade or work without cash. By the early 1990s there were 200 LETS banks in Australia, starting with the alternative community of Maleny in Queensland, and moving on to what became the largest system of its kind in the world – Blue Mountain LETS – with 2,000 members. There are now almost 400 LETS ‘banks’ in Britain and an estimated 35,000 people take part. Many of the LETS banks in the UK specialise in different sectors. In Kings Lynn, it is crafts; in Brighton it is repairs, cars and building work; in West Wiltshire, it is health.