A Euro Substitute?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128462416The alternative currency is not some gimmicky fundraiser. It may look a little like Monopoly money, but the chiemgauer is real. One chiemgauer equals one euro. It's been around for eight years, almost as long as the euro, the common currency now used by 16 of the 27 EU members.
Gelleri, a high school teacher who established the chiemgauer, is proud that more than 600 regional businesses — from drugstores to architects — now accept the microcurrency.
"The chiemgauer is connected to the region. You can't speculate with it, you can't buy stocks or options or shares with it," he says.
In other words, you can only spend it in the area. Organizers insist the currency is meant to promote a "buy local" mentality and is a complement to the euro. The chiemgauer is not backed by federal or local governments, though some banks are offering loans and checking accounts in the currency.
But the fact that there are more than two dozen regional currencies like this in Germany — the most anywhere in the world — underscores the German ambivalence toward the euro.