John Rogers: Starting your own currency: Why and How? (2013)

John Rogers ran a local exchange system in Wales from 1993-2003, co-directed the Wales Institute for Community Currencies at the University of Newport from 2003-2007 and is the author of three books on local currencies.

In July 2013, he was invited by Professor Bendell at IFLAS (The Institute for Leadership and Sustainability) in the University of Cumbria, England, to give an Open Lecture on community currencies.

National currency is a highly successful ‘social technology’ that enables us to do business with each other, to build roads, schools and hospitals and run complex modern economies. But all this comes at a price. The interest-bearing money system behind it creates debt and erodes regional autonomy.

Local currencies are necessary as a counterbalance and come in many shapes and forms. But an even more challenging question than ‘why’ we need them is ‘how to do them’.

John Rogers outlines three ‘Ms’ as guiding principles for successful local currency development:

Mavericks – most local currencies are run by people outside the mainstream who can see a different way of doing local economies – we should encourage the mavericks

Methodology – we need more methodology and less ideology around local currency development in order to ensure that they are designed, managed and governed well

Maps – we need to make richer maps of the unmet needs and underused resources in each region before introducing local currencies.