Even stranger...
If you’re out and about shopping in Totnes, be careful. For as you now know, Totnians are different. Different in so many ways, but you probably didn’t expect a different currency. Forget those annoying Scottish fivers and tenners that someone sometimes surreptitiously offloads on to you, carefully hidden in ‘proper money’, or those irritating Manx, Jersey and Guernsey coins that sneak into your pockets from time to time! In Totnes, you need to watch out for the Totnes Pound (t£), for this town pioneered town currencies. t£ was withdrawn just two years ago but still watch out for strange change!
- Category: True Stories Told As Fiction
3 comments add one below
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Christopher over 2 years ago
I've never heard of town pounds. Were they legitimate currency or was it some sort of counterfeit money?
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VerityAlways over 2 years ago
Oh god, they still hold currency dated back from 2019? doesn't the central bank retain them?
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Neville Hunt over 2 years ago
Totnes was the pioneer in ‘town pounds’ back in 2007. It was 100% legitimate. In essence it was a way of trying to support local businesses. I guess it was a form of structured bartering in reality, but it had traction, and quite a number of other towns followed suit. It started initially as an experiment, but was jettisoned in 2019 as contactless payment had gained considerable traction over here. In these situations rogue hoarded examples of the old currency creep out of the woodwork sometimes for five or more years!
