Primarily, their use is local, and they're designed to stimulate a local economy. In the case of "Ithaca Hours", each "hour" is backed by an hour of labor (IOW, if I give you an Ithaca Hours note, you can redeem it from me for an hour of labor).
The problem with any alternative currencies is that unless you get really large numbers of people involved, they have a limited usefulness. Ithaca Hours work because they're widely used, but only in Ithaca. If I had some of the notes, they would do me no good here in California
Money gains its value from being available as a means of payment and because it preserves its value. Alternative currencies -- like the local currencies you mention -- are less available as a means of payment, because they are only accepted at some merchants, and they generally are pegged directly to dollars (although their community members generally will claim they are backed by "labor" or "time", but really they usually have a published and fixed exchange rate to the dollar).
For these two reasons, these currencies are not as valuable or as useful as dollars and cannot gain wide spread use even in the communities they launch in.
A great example of launching a new real and fully-fledged money is the history of the current Brazilian currency -- the Brazilian Real. Check it out!
We are starting new moneys at Xremata.com. Sign up for our Launch on the site. Contact us at info@xremata.com with any questions you have and follow us on twitter @xremata.
I'm sorry but the Peseta has not been used in Spain since 2001.......... I don't know where did you get that information from but it's just false...........
Anyway, if you still have pesetas in your house you can still go to the Spanish Central Bank and change them into Euros at no extra cost... so if anyone accepted any kind of payment in Pesetas it would be knowing that they're backed by Euros.
We are working for the advancement of Alternative Currency initiatives in Occupy Wall Street and The World.
Jct: All alternate interest-free currencies are back by Time at human labor. They're all LETS timebanks in the final analysis. Someday, there'll be a UNILETS timebank for all.
alternate currencies have been popping up since the recession occured and when the euro started losing value. like how the peseta has been used once again in spain and how different currencies are being used in a few neighborhoods in the US. so how do they gain value? are they backed by gold, silver or what?
