Re-Imagining Money: A Currency Project About Personal Values and Connections

By Paul Baines, Great Lakes Commons

What if the people of the Great Lakes basin created their own currency to exchange commons and ancestral values such as gratitude, reciprocity, mutualism, trust, reverence, and friendship? 

Great Lakes Commons recently launched a currency project that puts water care at the center of value and exchange. With seed money from Kosmos, we designed and printed 5,000 currency notes.

Rather than based on dollars, the value of these notes is our collective agreement and intention to reward people for water protection actions. This project puts forth a currency with a different theory of value, such as past and future actions for water care.

Sharing Great Lakes Commons currency is an investment in the world we want. Here’s how the exchanges and a new story of money are being manifested across the Great Lakes:

• We have been mailing 10 notes to each of our Great Lakes Commons Charter supporters as an additional action they can take as water guardians. We also have given out currency notes at various water-protection workshops and events. So far, we’ve given out almost half of our 5,000 notes.
• On the back of each note are a few giving rules: Give a note to anyone taking action to care for water. You decide what actions matter. This giving is a way to say “thank you.” Give a note to anyone who could be taking action for water, but is not. You still decide what actions matter. This giving is a way to say “please.”
• We want to celebrate this network of care through stories. Participants are asked to tell their exchange story on our collaborative storytelling map. We can track the flow of this currency since each note has a unique serial number. What was it like getting and sharing the notes? What kinds of conversations did it spark? What types of past and future actions did people reward? Where did your note go or where did it come from?

The last element of this currency design includes an expiration date. Beyond a token Great Lakes Commons note that participants keep for themselves, this currency is for sharing not saving. The value of this currency comes through its use -- its current. This currency will expire Dec. 31, 2017, and we are currently looking for partners to re-imagine the project for 2018. Participate in this ‘Currency of Care’ project by visiting our website.

Paul Baines is the education and outreach coordinator for Great Lakes Commons, a nonprofit affiliated with the Milwaukee Environmental Consortium. He designed the Currency of Care pilot project as well as the Great Lakes Commons collaborative story sharing map.