BerkShares: an alternative to US dollar from western Massachussetts

Since September of 2006 some colorful money has been circulating in the region around Great Barrington, Massachusetts. A nonprofit there has spearheaded an alternative currency to the U.S. dollar, and it's now accepted at about 300 businesses in the southern Berkshire area.

Known as BerkShares, the bills come in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, and 50. They have the equivalent value in dollars when used to pay for something and can be exchanged at any of five banks in the area. But when they are bought or exchanged at one of the banks, they value 90 cents. That is, you can buy one BerkShare for 90 cents but use it to buy something valued at a dollar. So you can earn a one-time 10 percent discount. Businesses that accept BerkShares can either keep them in circulation (using them to buy something that is the equivalent of a dollar) or exchange them for 90 cents on the dollar at a bank (effectively absorbing that 10 percent discount).

Why would anyone go to the effort of creating such a currency, or actually use it or accept it? It's all part of nurturing a vibrant local economy.

When a business or individual accepts BerkShares, they are committing to either use those BerkShares themselves, which means supporting one of the local businesses that accepts them, or exchanging them at the bank for dollars, which means essentially giving locals who use them a 10-percent discount.

Susan Witt, executive director of the E.F. Schumacher Society, the nonprofit behind the currency, has said, "Goods produced in a region and consumed in a region...require a low level of fossil fuels, provide jobs, and allow people to know the story of a product, everything from where it comes from to how the workers who produce it are treated."

The bills also help to forge a regional identity and pride. They are beautifully designed by local artists and feature images that celebrate local heroes such as W.E.B. DuBois, who was born in Great Barrington; Herman Melville, who lived in Pittsfield; and Norman Rockwell, who lived in Stockbridge. The one-BerkShare bill features a portrait of one of the Berkshires' first settlers, the Mohicans, and the 10-BerkShare bill features Robyn Van En, founder of the country's first community-supported agriculture (CSA) project in South Egremont.

~ source: Forget the Benjamins—in the Berkshires It's All About the Rockwells ~