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by Uberphallus 1907 days ago
> Spain has several, maybe even a dozen or something, local currencies. All being traded just fine in their communities.

I've lived in Spain for decades, never heard of such thing. Depending how you count you could argue there are a dozen spoken languages, but currencies? That requires a big citation.

2 comments

Not GP, but I presume they're talking about alternative currencies¹. Things like the Ehki in Bilbao or Eusko across the border in Basque France. I'm picking those two on purpose because they make a point about it sometimes simply being about regional politics and not generic fiscal localism².

Depending on how you draw the line you could, for example, include the Barcelona Rec³ too. I think I draw the line at physical notes, but YMMV.

Edit to add: Looks like the ehki is digital only now.

¹ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_currency

² https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiscal_localism

³ https://ca.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recurs_Econòmic_Ciutadà

Might've mistaken with Basque country in particular and France in general—guess I majorly botched all those vague recollections in the comment.

Wikipedia lists four local currencies in France: Abeille, Eusko, Krôkô, Occitan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_currency). And also says, “The eusko is one of a number of currencies that are active in the Basque Country”.

Though apparently the UK has about five current and four past community currencies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_currencies_i...

Fell in to this rabbit hole a little earlier, so I'll try to drag you in as well. If you switch languages on Wikipedia the list grows a whole lot¹.

FWIW, I've only ever seen one local note in the UK and that was on somebody's fridge ~100km from Bristol where it would actually be valid. I suspect there is a fair amount of money trapped in scrapbooks and on fridges ;)

¹ https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_monnaies_locales_c...

Good idea, I've perused the Spanish page on ‘local currencies’ and count seven of them (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moneda_local)—though on the English WP the topic is split across several articles. I'm also guessing the list might easily be incomplete.

(Also the ‘eQ’ thing on this page sounds like someone's marketing campaign, so perhaps should be cleaned up or removed. E.g.: “aims to promote local consumption, increase the purchasing power of people (for €1 you get 1.50eQ)”—wow very smart, much increase; but later suddenly “€1 = 1eQ”.)