Some businesses in Pittsboro accept two forms of currency, and there is PLENTY of it.
The PLENTY Currency Cooperative manages the PLENTY, an acronym that stands for the Piedmont Local EcoNomy Tender.
The currency’s intended purpose is to help promote local commerce within the community and make money more of a face-to-face interaction, since the currency cannot be used with the direct deposit system.
The local currency’s circulation is an approach to the buy local movement. The Currency Cooperative said the PLENTY is an attempt to promote recurrent local consumption by encouraging local businesses to buy the supplies they need to operate from Pittsboro.
PLENTYs, which are offered in 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1 denomination bills, have a unique appearance compared to the green Federal Reserve notes. PLENTYs are colorful notes that feature images of wildlife and landmarks distinctive to the region. Despite their colorful and foreign appearance, PLENTYs are a legal form of currency and are taxed the same as dollars.
The currency is only accepted at about 47 locations in the area, and the businesses that take the currency are able to decide whether they allow purchases to be made with only PLENTYS or a combination of local and federal currency.
Businesses become members of the project by paying a $50 annual membership fee and the businesses must reside in Chatham, Orange, Durham, Wake or Lee counties. Businesses that use PLENTYs are also required to promote the currency and abide by other guidelines in order to continue their use of the currency.
Piedmont Biofuels, a fuel company in Pittsboro, uses the PLENTY and pays a portion of some employee paychecks in PLENTYs.
Douglas Pearce, a professor of economics here at N.C. State, said that even though the notes have a 1-to-1 ratio, the currency is not as valuable as a United States Dollar to holders.
“If you are actually getting paid in this stuff, you would have to get paid more, because in effect it is not worth as much as a dollar,” Pearce said. “You can’t buy everything that a dollar can buy; a dollar can buy everything that a PLENTY can buy and other stuff.”
The currency can’t be used in any locations that are not members of the PLENTY Currency Cooperative.
PLENTYs have been in circulation in Pittsboro since 2002 and hold the value of one U.S. dollar. Consumers or firms can acquire PLENTYs by exchanging Federal Reserve notes at the Capital Bank branch of Pittsboro.
Lyle Estill, president of the PLENTY Currency Cooperative Board of Trustees, said the view that PLENTYs are useless is understandable.
“If I did with my dollar the same thing I do with my PLENTYs the net effect of a local economy is going to be identical,” Estill said. “You can say there is no point in the PLENTY; that would be a perfectly legitimate statement.”
The currency may seem pointless, but the circulation of PLENTYs forces people into buying locally instead of thinking about it, according to Estill. “If you have a pocket full of PLENTYs, you are going to go the place that accepts them. You are kind of forced into participating in a local economy.”
Local currency is not a recent development, and there are other cities in North Carolina like Asheville, Durham and Mars Hill, that try to promote buying locally with similar systems.
University Dining also has a similar model with its Dinning Dollars program. While Dinning Dollars are more restrictive because they cannot be refunded until graduation or withdrawal from the University, the system serves as an example of forcing interactions in a local economy. Dining Dollars promote market transactions within the N.C. State community by forcing students who participate in the Dinning Dollars program to purchase from C-Stores and other campus locations.
PLENTYs could make their way to Raleigh if a business owner decided to support the project.