From Daily Planet Staff Reports

The Asheville Currency Project is aiming to launch its system of alternative money in September, according to its organizers.

The project seeks to provide a grassroots community alternative to the government system of dollars. The business-based system is intended to act as a force multiplier by injecting its currency into the Asheville area economy, thereby helping both the business community and individuals by increasing spending.

The coordinating committee of Julie Schantz, Amy Hamilton and John Robinson, unveiled details of the project during a Dec. 16 interview with the Daily Planet.

Julie Schantz

Amy Hamilton

John Robinson

Schantz and her husband have “licensed out” their business manufacturing organic candy bars, while Hamilton is a free-lance writer, dancer and dance instructor and works with Green Opportunities, and Robinson works in customer service at a local bank (“one of the big ones” that he declined to identify) and is a local television personality and hosts a variety show at Vortex Cabaret.

The project began locally in 2005, when Asheville sustainability activist Jim Barton had an intern at UNC Asheville perform hours of work studying alternative currencies, Schantz noted. Barton coined the term “Asheville Currency Project” and expressed an intent on bringing the project to fruition.

However, Barton started it, he became involved in other matters, so Schantz, who remained an ACP enthusiast “got fired up” after reading about Ithaca Hours (an alternative currency in Ithaca, N.Y.) and “started to talk to people.”

Hamilton, a participant in an Asheville Web site for mothers and a newcomer to the city, added that she had read about the ACP, met Schantz about a year ago, felt “there was a good chance of success” and decided to join in organizing the effort.

“I’ve been a community organizer for years,” Hamilton said. “I think the idea of a local currency” fits her requirements for being a worthwhile project for her to help the community.

In reading intensively on alternative currencies and alternative economics, Hamilton cited “Collective Women” and Paul Krugman as key influences.

Robinson also joined the ACP effort in its early days, noting that “libertarianism was the gateway sustance” on his way to becoming an enthusiast for alternative currencies.

“We met for a while, but there were insurmountable conflicts,” he said of the initial efforts to get the project off the ground. “Then Julie got hold of me,” having found his telephone number inf Barton’s Rolodex file. “This past April or May, about a half dozen of us started meeting” on a regular basis about the project.

Schantz noted, “I just thought it would be the perfect thing for Asheville. There’s already so much support for things going on around” Asheville. “It felt good to help the community. The paper money we create will be earned and spent in Asheville and the surrounding areas and Buncombe County. It encourages more local spending ... We’re adding capacity” by putting more liquidity into the local economy.

Hamilton added that an alternative currency could insulate the local community from the vagaries of the national monetary system. “As for the dollar, I wouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket,” she said, alluding to the recent plummet in the U.S. currency and ailing national economy.

Robinson added, “Even if the dollar rallied tomorrow and the dollar was back on top, this still would be a good idea of Asheville ... This is a good idea for Asheville — as well as for the world.”

Agreeing, Hamilton said, “Whatever happens to the U.S. currency, we’re not concerned about it” with an alternative currency to use. “We have very little control over the U.S. economy and so we’d like to influence things locally with a local currency.”

Schantz pointed out that an alternative currency “creates some resilience if the U.S. dollar tanks.”

Robinson asserted, “Paper money has historically been issued by governments, based on some standard. It (the standard) usually gets lost” over time. “Our currency will be backed by the goods and services of local businesses.”

As for the issuing mechanisms, Hamilton noted, “What we’re doing is different from fiat currency. This is built on reciprocity.”

Schantz said the ACP essentially is a “mutual credit-clearing” system,” noting that is will be issuing community credit lines to businesses that are well-established.”

While the LETS (Local Exchange Trading System) project in Asheville will offer an alternative economic system on a household level, the ACP “is more storefront-oriented,” Schantz noted.

“We extend a community credit line to them and they become an issuing business,” she said. The ACP is considering allowing an average credit issuance of 5,000 currency units.

Schantz noted the following three ways the ACP participants can use its currency:
• Issuing employee wages, fully or partially.
• Paying for goods and services.
• Offering it as change to customers.

She reiterated that the system is totally voluntary to businesses and individuals and that nobody is obligated to accept the ACP currency.

Robinson noted that, once a month, the ACP coordinating committee “might adjust the correlation of the U.S. dollar to the ACP currency.

He added, “None of us are going to get rich off of this. We are offering a service to the community. Ideally, I’d like to see this as a part-time job.”

Robinson noted that “a lot of this is from a book by Thomas Greco called ‘The End of Money.’ Most businesses go through their stock every three months. You could use the line of credit for three months.

“If they use their 5,000 in currency units (in three months, that obligates them to accept that 5,000 back. Once you get back to zero (as a business), you can opt out” or seek more credit.”

The ACP denominations will probably include ones, fives, tens and twentys, the trio said.

Hamilton reiterated, “If the dollar devalues greatly, alternative currencies” could be especially useful, citing her reading about such situations that have resulted in hyper-inflation in past history.

Schantz added that, “if the U.S. dollar rallies,” it won’t affect the alternative currency, in her view.

Robinson pointed out, “The system is designed to be end-able” and he said it has checks and balances in it.
Hamilton noted, “The worst-case scenario is people not using” the ACP currency. However, she said the aforementioned scenario is unlikely because “our currency is based on goods and services. There’s always going to be a sector that won’t participate,” particularly those who are “disenfranchised from the economic system.

“There are not enough jobs” for everyone. The ACP will “mitigate unemployment” and put more money in business’ and people’s pockets, Hamilton contended.

“It will be up to the community to vote who we’ll have on the units,” with Robinson quipping that hopes the money will not feature “dead white males” because he believes that has been overdone with the U.S. currency.

More seriously, the trio agreed those pictured on the units will be famous and historical locals who have made an impact on the community. To qualify to vote, one must serve as an ACP volunteer, thereby making one a member of Friends of the ACP.

So would it be possible that conservative white male (although not a dead one) like Carl Mumpower, who recently was defeated in his bid to keep his seat on City Council after eight years of service, be pictured on ACP currency?

Smiling, Schantz said its quite possible Mumpower could be on the currency, noting that she believes that the ACP participants most assuredly will have a sense of humor. Her two grinning colleagues nodded in agreement.
The ACP will be organized as a public for-profit, LLC, worker-owned cooperative.

The currency, which has yet to be designed, will have to be — by law — a different size and look than the U.S. dollar, Schantz said. “The paper (on which it is printed) will be unique,” with quantum dot printing and serial numbers to ward off counterfeiters.

“It’ll probably be smaller” than the U.S. dollar, she said, noting that it’s important that merchants can keep it in their cash registers and individuals in their wallets.

The ACP currency definitely will be “very colorful,” Schantz said. “The key to success is to keep it in circulation” and the organizers are “trying to be very transparent.” She referred to the ACP’s Principles listed on its Web site at www.avlcurrency.com.

With the launch date set for September, she said in January “after the holidays, we’ll pick back up” with fund-raising, currency design and choosing a name for the currency.

The ACP has an advisory committee, with eight or nine members, includingg a lawyer and a certified public accountant, the trio said.

When the ACP is launched, it hopes to offer a directory of 200 to 400 businesses that accept the currency, Schantz said.

As for the potential of burnout of its organizers, which the trio agreed is he biggest problem with keeping an alternative currency system going “Our goal is to be modular, so nobody is irreplaceable,” Schantz asserted