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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 1008598, member: 57463&quot;]Discussing a Detroit Depression Scrip note, krispy opined:</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>That would be one reason to pursue them now.&nbsp; If you look at the history of auctions, you see very many with astounding examples of the coins we all collect now.&nbsp; Perhaps my favorite in that was the Heritage sale of the Finest Mercury Dimes.&nbsp; Mercury has been my username since 1984; currently mercury49attorchlakedotcom.&nbsp; So I like Mercs.&nbsp; But we know about them ... all about them... On the other hand, the historically important sales -- Pittman; Eliasberg; even or especially John Jay Ford -- were of collections created when no one else cared for the material.&nbsp; Indian Peace Medals, Large Cents, Conder Tokens, ...&nbsp; today&#039;s important pursuits were yesterday&#039;s unknowns.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>But what is a community currency?</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By law, anyone can print a note -- that is what a draft or check is. In my check collection, I have a preprinted Promissory Note.&nbsp;&nbsp; (No one except the government can make a coin as money. Read the law USC Title 18 Chapter 25)&nbsp; But as krispy pointed out in that thread, <b>a nice design does not make a community currency.&nbsp; </b></p><p><br /></p><p>Philatelists call them &quot;cinderellas&quot; -- fantasies.&nbsp; We see them in numismatics and the so-called &quot;micronational&quot; hobby is loaded with them.&nbsp; Long ago, Erwin S. Strauss recommended this in <i>How to Start Your Own Country</i>: no law against it and it is an exercise in psychological (though not political) independence.&nbsp; So, if you goto Yahoo Groups you can find tons of paper that no one wants.</p><p><br /></p><p>A real community currency circulates.&nbsp; It has a history.&nbsp; It represents an organizational structure for a market place.&nbsp; Back in 2004 and 2005, I posted on this in Coin Talk first <a href="http://www.cointalk.com/t2823/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/t2823/">here</a>, and then <a href="http://www.cointalk.com/t10611/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/t10611/">here</a>.&nbsp; I just went to the Bay Bucks <a href="http://www.baybucks.org/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.baybucks.org/" rel="nofollow">website here</a>&nbsp; and while some information is aged, the page is copyrighted 2010.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>If you want more information, a suggested earlier, the Schumacher Society is one place to start.&nbsp; They have been at this longest.&nbsp; Note also, that the nominal starting point for modern US community currency, Ithaca Time Dollars, is also active, but that the WWW presence has split with the original creator and designer going commercial while the community continues.</p><p><br /></p><p>To create an important (and eventually saleable) collection, you would need to validate the currencies by gathering news reports, following the local sources, and tracking the launch (and perhaps demise) of the notes.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><b>It takes a community to create a community currency.</b>&nbsp; With Bay Bucks, they met for years before they launched.&nbsp; (<a href="http://www.michigancoinclub.org/Baybucks.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.michigancoinclub.org/Baybucks.htm" rel="nofollow">My Bay Bucks story here in the MSNS archives.</a>)&nbsp; On the other hand, Detroit Cheers was created by one bar owner and then it spread to other establishments nearby and now it stands on its own to whatever extent.&nbsp; Mostly, they are for export: you take out a Cheers by leaving an FRN behind.&nbsp; But, they are nominally acceptable at par in bars and restaurants around Greektown in Detroit.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, realize that there is no scriptural liturgy for this.&nbsp; We have no books yet.&nbsp; Only a few articles have been published.&nbsp; I placed some exhibits at MSNS, but I have not seen others or heard of others at CSNS or the ANA, though I have not attended in a few years, either.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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