Like many places around the state , Tenino , Washington , has take a fiscal hit during theCOVID-19pandemic . Instead of writing checks to resident in pauperism , the town is printing its own money on Grant Wood in an effort to promote the local saving , CNNreports .
Any Tenino resident living below the poverty line canapplyfor a wooden currency loanword . To qualify , they must prove they lost money as a result of the pandemic , but as town city manager Wayne Fournier toldThe Hustle , “ we ’re passably open to what that means . ”
One wooden bill is deserving $ 25 , and certified candidates can receive up to 12 of them per calendar month — the combining weight of $ 300 . The dollars look unique , with a retro design and a Romance inscription that roughly translate to “ We ’ve got this handled . ” But the exceptional money serve a big aim : The note are only valid at local business , which ensures spenders keep the cash within the local economy instead of giving it to major retail merchant . When a dealing has been made , business owner can take the currency to City Hall and exchange it for real U.S. currency .
This is n’t Tenino ’s first time abide economical rigour . By 1931 , America had move into the Great Depression , and the town ’s local Citizens Bank had frozen all accounts . Tenino responded by printing its first run of wooden dollars that year . That original program , which was funded by the local Chamber of Commerce instead of the town government , take into account residents to exchange up to 25 percent of their bank deposit for the wooden notes .
Today the bill from the 1930s are accumulator ’s items . The townsfolk had that part of its history in mind when it launched its new substitute currency program ; the wooden dollars circulating today were even publish using the same newspaper press used to make the wooden money 90 years ago .
[ h / tCNN ]
