Welcome to the Stroud Pound website.

 

Demurrage - Exciting New Development for Stroud Pound

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Press release  8th March 2010:

‘First UK Currency to Use Stamps to Encourage Spending Rather than Saving’

 

The Stroud Pound has been successfully launched and is already making a difference in the local economy. With around 150 members and over SP7,000 spent so far, local trade is being encouraged and more than £200 has been gathered for donation to local good causes.

 

Now is the time when the unique design feature of this local money comes into operation. A close look at the design of the notes reveals several spaces on the reverse which are ready for have special stamps stuck on them. Without the stamps the currency will lose its value on 1st April. This is a system known as 'demurrage' and it amounts to a form of negative interest rate. It may seem strange to do this and yet it is no more strange than having money lose its value through inflation. It returns to money its true role as a pure medium of exchange and provides an important incentive for increasing the circulation of money.  Stroud pounds are truly for spending and not saving!

 

Stroud Pound co-op members with money in their purses or pockets will need to come to the Stroud Pound stall, outside Stroud Valleys Project in Threadneedle Street, to buy special stamps to put on each note if they wish to spend them after April 1st.  The Stroud pound stall is open between 11am and 1pm every Saturday morning and from 14th March we will be selling the stamps as well as Stroud pounds with stamp already on them - which will now be valid for another six months.

 

Consumers can of course spend all their Stroud pounds before the 1st April deadline and avoid buying the stamps. Traders can then expect to see a rush of spending in the last days of March. This should give them a small boost in trade. If they  then wish to redeem the notes for sterling, they have two weeks to do so at the normal redepmtion rate without having to purchase stamps.

 

For further information contact: Molly Scott Cato, 01453 298184 (07890 832891) or Bernard Jarman, 01453 757436.

 

Official launch - September 2009

 

The official unveiling of the Stroud Pound took place on Threadneedle Street, outside the offices of the Stroud Valleys Project and opposite Stroud’s very own Old Lady (Teashop) on Saturday 12th September.

 

Rob Hopkins' excellent Transition Culture blog notes the launch and and here is a piece from the local paper. Local councillor, Philip Booth, on his excellent site Ruscombe Green has some good commentary and photographs of the launch (see Monday 14th September). The Stroud Pound is the work of the Stroud Pound Co-op Ltd which in turn, grew out of Transition Stroud.  The Guardian has a lengthy piece about local currencies - particularly featuring the Brixton Pound which was launched recently.

                                            

Molly Scott Cato, one of the organisers of the initiative says:  “The aim of the currency is to keep economic value within the the local economy, but the link to the local identity is also important. What makes Stroud better is that we have a lot of local producers here. We have a big farmer’s market here and we hope there will be a synergy between consumers and producers. Green economists hope to achieve this kind of closed loop.”

 

The notes, designed by local artist Ronan Schoemaker and produced by Steve Charlwood, are like miniature histories of the economic and cultural life of the Five Valleys.

 

The most prominent local celebrity to feature is Laurie Lee, author of Cider with Rosie, who was born in Stroud and is buried in the Slad Valley. Local wildlife is represented by the rare Adonis Blue butterfly found on Minchinhampton Common. Stroud’s economic heritage is commemorated by the teasle itself, while the lawnmower, invented in Stroud, and the green felt cloth that is still made in the town also feature.