We were in Traverse City, Michigan, last weekend. It was a family event. On Sunday, we went shopping downtown and stopped in a Oryana Co-op to buy snacks. I took my change in Bay Bucks. "In the late summer of 2003, I head a radio interview on WIAA-FM, Interlochen, in which two Traverse City community activists explained their plans for a hometown money. They sounded competent and intelligent and the project was compelling to me as a numismatist. I tracked them down by asking around at the Oryana Natural Food Co-op. I found Natasha Lapinsky and Chris Grobbel at Ball Environmental Associates. Lapinksi holds master’s in terrestrial biology from NMU. Grobbel earned a doctorate in community development at MSU. I interviewed them (and others) for an article that ran in the November 13, 2003 issue of Northern Express. I wrote a follow-up article for the June 10, 2004 issue. "Lapinski and Grobbel told me that during the Great Depression, Traverse City had its own local currency, but that they had never seen one, only heard about this. So, I visited Coins & Collectibles on State Street, and talked to the guys. Richard Bond lent me samples of each of the two “Roosevelt” notes created in 1933. David Croad came up with an array of local tokens. From the ANA, I borrowed the Mitchell & Shafer catalog and the Curto monograph. I rejoined Mich-TAMS, and Paul Manderscheid of Liberty Coins in Lansing mailed me a sheaf of materials including his own notes updating Cunningham’s catalog." For more information about creating their community currency, read here: https://michigancoinclub.org/Articles04.html Launching Bay Bucks here: https://www.northernexpress.com/new...-plan-for-homegrown-currency-has-a-rich-past/ (For other stories in Northern Express, put "community currency" and "Bay Bucks" in the search box.) You can read a CoinTalk thread about community currencies here: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/community-currencies.132816/
These do not have serial numbers because they are pre-production proofs. They also lack the silver security dot below the southeast corner of the Lower Peninsula. It was kind of funny... I created a judged exhibit for the MSNS convention with design concepts in stages. One of the judges scored the display very low for only having "photocopies." Obviously, I failed to explain the display ...
Recent articles about Bay Bucks. It may go digital... 2018 https://www.traverseticker.com/news/yes-traverse-city-still-has-its-own-currency/ 2019 https://www.traverseticker.com/news/could-bay-bucks-go-digital/
The art was the work of four students from Northwestern Michigan College. It was a term project for them. They set themselves up as a design firm and dealt with the Bay Bucks Committee as consultants.