"The Deise" - Our own currency

abouttobebanned

Let's face it, with the massive complex we have about our city - we've always felt a bit different to the rest of the country. So why has it never been suggested to have our own currency?

For the uninitiated...hear me out for a second.

All shops etc would of course still take the euro but if we introduced currency (100 deises) that could only be spent in Waterford, then it would have a number of benefits.

1 - It could only be spent in waterford, therefore keeping the money in the local economy.
2. It would get us national press. Granted, a lot of people would probably laugh at us, but I don't think they'd be laughing when they saw the initiative working!
3. Could spark an upsurge in tourism. Let's go to that place that has its own currency. (Pics of Thomas Francis Meagher etc on the notes)
4. Could be integrated into the Viking Triangle initiative.

any thoughts?

AdMMM

I know that Mullingar have this and the notes offer a discount on participating outlets (because obviously not every store signs up for it). Suppose it would be worth asking them does it work up there?

CardBordWindow

Can't say I've heard of the Mullingar currency.

anplaya

AdMMM wrote: »

I know that Mullingar have this and the notes offer a discount on participating outlets (because obviously not every store signs up for it). Suppose it would be worth asking them does it work up there?

read that over 100 outlets in mullingar do it,offers a10pc discount.was in the paper today.putting john joe nevins picture on one of the notes.thats prob where the op got the idea from sure.

abouttobebanned

anplaya wrote: »

read that over 100 outlets in mullingar do it,offers a10pc discount.was in the paper today.putting john joe nevins head on one of the notes.thats prob where the op got the idea from sure.

Nope, never heard of the mullingar currency.

I got the idea from this

Avox

abouttobebanned wrote: »

1 - It could only be spent in waterford, therefore keeping the money in the local economy.

There within lies a problem, many people don't want to spend in Waterford because of the lack of shops.

2. It would get us national press. Granted, a lot of people would probably laugh at us, but I don't think they'd be laughing when they saw the initiative working!

Wouldn't really as it's already been done.

3. Could spark an upsurge in tourism. Let's go to that place that has its own currency. (Pics of Thomas Francis Meagher etc on the notes)

Why not just go to the UK so? They have their own currency.

abouttobebanned

Gotta love that avox positivity that is so rife in Waterford.

Straycat

didnt the malcolmsons of portlaw have their own leather money currency. (granted the owned as well as employed the whole village)

cococoady

I was only thinking that at lunch time reading about the boxer lad from mullingar.
I for one think it's a good idea and if local businesses jumped on board with it by offering discounts for people who use it, that it would be even better.

Junior

Weekends like The Harvest Festival, Spraoi etc would an ideal time to test something like this.

BBM77

Waterford used to have its own money. In the museum in Collins Barracks in Dublin they have some of the bank notes. So the concept of local currency is nothing new.

abouttobebanned

And just a small point...before today, how many people knew that Mullingar had done it? I mean I'd be thinking that if you're going to do it, you should do it properly, and have it known nationwide.

And to say that Waterford hasn't got the shops to justify a system like this is just ridiculous. People really need to get over this obsession with Marks and Spencer and fcuking Iceland. It doesn't matter what it is, if someone else has it, someone will throw a strop saying that Waterford is not good enough until they have it too.

Here's how it could work IMO

• 1 Deise (or Blaa or whatever ya wanna call em. It's not important) would be equal to one euro. And not like they said that £1 would be equal to €1.27 cause that certainly didn't work. I don't remember my chomp bar ever been 13 cent. They just decided to crank it straight up to 50 cent.
  
• Every shop would issue euros as change unless someone requests DEISES. But every business would have to be on board to take them. Bus Eireann, cinemas, tescos, Dunnes, pubs etc. We do not want a repeat of the Itchy and Scratchy Dollars fiasco!
  
• As many people as possible would give them in place of vouchers at christmas time and birthdays etc.

Others will add to this I'm sure...

abouttobebanned

BBM77 wrote: »

Waterford used to have its own money. In the museum in Collins Barracks in Dublin they have some of the bank notes. So the concept of local currency is nothing new.

No one said that it was anything new.

KevIRL

As usual Kilkenny got in there before us

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1114/1224258815778.html

abouttobebanned

But as usual* they did nothing about it. That article is from 2009 and they hoped to have it in circulation the following year.





*I have nothing to base this on.

ziedth

Also worth noting that i believe businesses would gain from issuing these as staff bonuses for Christmas or whatever from a tax point of view and then you would guarantee that the money would be spent in Waterford. It's far from the worst idea I ever heard if you could ensure counterfeiting wouldn't be a problem.


Who would we put on the note? How Do?

Jason Todd

ziedth wrote: »

Also worth noting that i believe businesses would gain from issuing these as staff bonuses for Christmas or whatever from a tax point of view and then you would guarantee that the money would be spent in Waterford. It's far from the worst idea I ever heard if you could ensure counterfeiting wouldn't be a problem.


Who would we put on the note? How Do?

Ah c'mon ziedth, get real for a second...


...we'd obviously have Tawdy

Psychedelic

abouttobebanned wrote: »

But as usual* they did nothing about it. That article is from 2009 and they hoped to have it in circulation the following year.

*I have nothing to base this on.

They did, however, bring in a local gift voucher which works on the same principles, i.e. get people to buy them as gifts for friends, staff, whatever, which will encourage money to be kept circulated in the local area. Dungarvan and many other towns have done it too.

I don't know if a local currency would get off the ground in Waterford, I just don't think enough shops would be bothered, and you'd need most of them on board to make the currency/voucher appealing to people. It would also take a lot of ongoing administration and marketing, who is going to do this? Are the shops willing to give a discount on their goods and also pay an admin fee or a % cut on whatever they make via the currency?

BBM77

abouttobebanned wrote: »

No one said that it was anything new.

Yea, pointless posts aren’t anything new either.

abouttobebanned

BBM77 wrote: »

Yea, pointless posts aren’t anything new either.

Case in point. Well done.

Jayeire

BBM77 wrote: »

Yea, pointless posts aren’t anything new either.

The necessity of the above post is questionable :cool:

I think its a great idea, and fairplay to the OP for raising the topic.
The amount of cynics here is unbelievable.
If marketed correctly and implemented successfully I'm sure such a system could work quite wonderfully in Waterford. As with everything, trial and error is necessary.
Don't shoot a man down for merely making a suggestion :P

fatherbuzcagney

Maybe waterford could use a system like they use in las vegas where all casino chips can be used as currency in shops and restaurants(if you have any left).

All shops should be made take the chips and ones that want to give a discount to do so at their own discretion and then they could be pound for pound in value.It would show their loyalty to their repeat local customers as well as giving the tourist something to talk about when they leave. If the taxis agreed to take them then people leaving town could exchange their remaining chips for euro at any rank or driver on the road. They would probably make a few bob on the exchange as most would round down.

Nypd

Quirky idea, could encounter fairly substantial set up costs; the notes would have to be good as I could see counterfeiting being a big problem.

Jogathon

abouttobebanned wrote: »

Let's face it, with the massive complex we have about our city - we've always felt a bit different to the rest of the country.
any thoughts?

Yes, you sound like you could be from the Real Capital - the People's Republic of Cork.

deisemum

This has already been discussed at Tramore Transition Town (T3) meetings a few years ago and is running in a number of Transition Towns.

It's a few years since I heard about it but wouldn't know what the up to date plans on it are.

http://t3.ie/

larchielads

faces for currency suggestions and nicknames for the currency like england have, a pony, a monkey etc.

1euro coin = 1 blaa coin Val Doonican
2euro coin = 2 blaa coin Gilbert O Sullivan
5euro note = 5 blaa note would be known as a yungwan, Kelly Proper
10euro note = 10 blaa note would known as a yungfella, Keith Barry
no 15 euro note but hey its our currency so 15 blaa note would be known as a Tawdy and yeah put Tawdy on it!!!
20euro note = 20 blaa note would be called a Well Boi , John Mullane
50euro note = 50 blaa note would be called a Nixer, John O'Shea

just havin a bit of fun wit it

CardBordWindow

Jason Todd wrote: »

Ah c'mon ziedth, get real for a second...


...we'd obviously have Tawdy

There'll be more than one note/coin. Both could be easily catered for!

abouttobebanned

I'd like to see the 5D note designed by primary school kids. The 10D note designed by secondary school students. The 20D note designed by college students and the 50D note from an open competition of all waterfordians.

Any shops etc that dont take part will only be missing out on business.

Psychedelic

I'd love to know if there are any statistics proving the success of local currencies. I was thinking it over and I don't know if it would be that effective.

Okay, think about these types of businesses:

Hairdressers
Taxis
Supermarkets
Restaurants & Cafes
Fashion
Florists
Pubs & Clubs
Motors
Health & Beauty
Arts
Leisure
Electrical

Now ask yourself, what difference would a local currency make to your spend in the above? For most of the above, the only option is to spend it locally anyway e.g. you are not really going to go outside Waterford for a haircut or for dinner.

The only sectors that have real competition from outside Waterford would be motors and fashion. You wouldn't be using local currency to purchase something like a car. With fashion, the problem is people will travel outside of Waterford because they can't find what they want or they simply just want to see what's on offer elsewhere - how is a local currency, even with a potential discount, going to keep them from doing that? For electrical goods, if people can get them cheaper elsewhere or online they will do so, a local currency won't make a difference.

It might still work, but you would want to do a lot of market research beforehand and survey people to see would they actually use a local currency and ask businesses what they think of it. Do people actually spend most of their money locally anyway? Might be a good research project for a WIT student.

lassykk

Much as I think it's a cool idea there would be fairly high costs in implementing something like this.

The cost of creating a currency that can't be forged easily I reckon is a very skilled task and not something that any local business would possess (we might have few people who could offer forgery though!). I guess talking to the people who implemented this in Mullingar would point you in the right direction.

Getting buy in from major outlets would prove very difficult I imagine. There would be nothing in it for them (people will go to Tesco, etc one way or the other) and from a logistics point of view they would need an extra drawer in each till to accommodate the additional currency and would have increased admin work from banking two different currencies.

I'm intrigued as to how this works in Mullingar.

ziedth

Maybe we are looking at this wrong. What about a "DeiseCard" much like the Visa Credit cards that O2 and Bank of Ireland are using. You top it up at various points and get a % Discount at participating stores. I'd assume if work loaded money onto it for you as a bonus that they would still benefit from the tax deduction and you would still spend it locally. Exact same principle that ATBB is talking about just without the fear of counterfeiting.