'Berkshares' Are Intended to Encourage Local Commerce
Berkshares are available in five denominations. The bills are printed on high-quality paper and feature local heroes and landscapes of Southern Berkshire. $835,000-worth of Berkshares have been printed. (ABC News)
By STEPHANIE SY
SOUTHERN BERKSHIRE, Mass., Feb. 25, 2007
Susan Witt is an unassuming middle-aged woman who drives a Volvo around her quaint Rockwell-esque town and has somehow managed to foment a small revolution.
After years of planning, Witt started printing her own money and spending it around town.
She is not a counterfeiter. She is the founder of Berkshares, a local currency that was introduced last fall in Southern Berkshire, Mass. (where Normal Rockwell lived out his later years).
"The Berkshares are pretty simple to operate," she said. "You walk into a local bank, put down $90 federal and get 100 Berkshares, and then those Berkshares are spent at full value at regional stores."
$835,000-worth of notes were printed on fine-grain paper and distributed to banks that agreed to participate. The notes are now accepted at 225 businesses in the area, and the program continues to grow.
ABC News article:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/story?id=2903049
