From The Globe & Mail, Canada's National Newspaper, Page A7, March 19th, 2002 ...

B.C. island issues own currency

Saltspring organizers hope tourists will use bills for local shopping and as souvenirs

By KIM LUNMAN

Tuesday, March 19, 2002 – Print Edition, Page A11

VICTORIA -- A British Columbia island known for its laid-back lifestyle and eclectic community of artisans is giving the Canadian government a run for its money -- literally.
 

Saltspring Island is printing its own paper currency in an attempt to raise money for environmentally friendly buses on the idyllic Gulf Island of 10,000 residents.
 

About $500,000 in Saltspring Island money has been printed. The $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 and $100 bills feature local artists' rendering of island scenery and historical figures.
 

The design on the $100 bill, to be issued in time for the summer's tourist season, is the donated work of famous resident and wildlife painter Robert Bateman.
 

The money is being accepted at par at the community's banks, Canada Post and by most of the island's merchants. An ATM is being set up to dispense the Saltspring currency.
 

"People have really jumped on board," said Barry Kazakoff, owner of the Oystercatcher Seafood Bar and Grill, who accepts Saltspring currency along with Canadian and U.S. bills.
 

"If there's going to be a second sovereign country in Canada, it's going to be Saltspring," he said. "The tourists love it. It's really part of Saltspring. You can buy groceries with it, you can buy diapers, you can buy art or beer at the pub with it."

Residents came up with the idea last year to form a registered, not-for-profit society to print the money as a collector's item to raise money for a transit system.
 

The island's population doubles during the peak summer season and residents want to cut down on the pollution created by tourists arriving by ferry in their cars. The island currently has no public transportation.
 

They created a not-for-profit registered charity called the Salt Spring Island Monetary Foundation.
 

Organizers are hoping the island's currency will become a collector's item among the 250,000 people who visit the island annually. The currency expires two years from the date of issue. The cash that isn't redeemed before then will be kept in a reserve fund by the local IMF.
 

"If every tourist who comes here takes a $1 bill as a collector's item, that's $250,000," Dr. Bob McGinn, a local dentist and director for the Salt Spring IMF, said.
 

The $100 bill features Mr. Bateman's depiction of Saltspring's Mount Maxwell called Thinking Like a Mountain. A total of 5,000 $100 Bateman bills will be printed.
 

The $1 bill features Henry Bullock, one of the island's most recognized historical figures. The front of the blue $5 bill features Sylvia Stark, one of the island's first black settlers, and a pod of killer whales on the back.
 

The idea was initially the brainchild of a group of residents on Saltspring who want to create a sovereign nation.

Dr. McGinn said the main purpose of the island's paper currency, however, is to raise money for buses to transport tourists from the ferry to the congested community centre of Ganges.

The UsuryFree Network lauds the residents of Salt Spring Island for taking a leading role in re-establishing community currencies, which were common in Western Canada in the 1930's...

Readers are invited to read about (1) 'usuryfree' time currency at The UsuryFree Cyberclassroom: www.cyberclass.net/ufoh.htm and (2) barter in general and 'usuryfree' community currencies in general at the Barter/LETS Cyberclassroom: www.cyberclass.net/bartable.htm