I first encountered a local currency in the Sussex town of Lewes more than ten years ago. The Lewes pound, which features the radical 18th-century philosopher Thomas Paine, who lived in the town from 1768-74, is accepted at more than 100 independent local businesses. The idea is to encourage residents and visitors to shop locally rather than in chain stores, thereby keeping money in the town and tackling the climate emergency.
The Lewes pound also poses the interesting question of what a currency is. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “a system of money in general use in a particular country”, but need it be that? With the emergence of cryptocurrencies the answer is increasingly no.
Acceptance of digital currencies is growing and they
