
France's Basque Region Creates Its Own Currency - rmason
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190418-the-french-region-with-a-new-currency
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Rexxar
"creates" => "has created 6 years ago"

It's perfectly legal and there is a lot of them :
[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_monnaies_locales_com...](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_monnaies_locales_compl%C3%A9mentaires_en_France)

Personally I found this useless but it makes some people happy so why not ?

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neximo64
This is ignorant of the difference that The Basques want their own state. A
currency and a language are part of what it takes to hold the idea through
time.

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ekianjo
Seems like the Basques are kind of dropping their language for French instead,
based on this article.

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elif
I hiked across the entire region. Lots of Basque, written and spoken commonly.

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jknz
How is VAT paid? How is it accounted for when a business pays it's tax? Are
taxes on revenue in the local currency due in the national currency?

The only article I could find (in French) suggests that payment in these local
currencies bypass the French VAT. [https://www.europe1.fr/economie/Les-
monnaies-locales-c-est-l...](https://www.europe1.fr/economie/Les-monnaies-
locales-c-est-l-avenir-936924)

It it lets local business circumvent VAT, it not surprising that they quickly
become popular.

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sonnyblarney
It's ridiculous that there are not clear and unambiguous financial artifacts
on their site!

I can gather from [1] (in French):

\+ That is seems to be pegged 1:1 to the Euro

And from [2]

\+ That it may just be an 'alt format' \- i.e. each 'Eusko' is backed by a
Euro.

Meaning this is really just about names and bill colours. It's de-facto just
Euros.

I don't gather there's a central bank or monetary policy persey, but I could
be wrong, I would hope someone chimes in with answers.

It might be 'liked' by the local business as a means to avoid transparency,
would be a cynical take, but this is money, those are common money problems.

There are all sorts of neat ramifications to this, but considerably more if it
were truly it's own currency with central bank, policy and not pegged to the
Euro.

[1]
[http://www.euskalmoneta.org/comment_ca_marche/](http://www.euskalmoneta.org/comment_ca_marche/)
[2]
[http://www.euskalmoneta.org/eusko_numerique/](http://www.euskalmoneta.org/eusko_numerique/)

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weberc2
> Meaning this is really just about names and bill colours

In other words, it’s about _identity_ , not economics.

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omosubi
Wasn't that the point all along? It's not like they were hiding it. They want
french Basques to be proud of their heritage

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weberc2
Absolutely. It’s clearly symbolic and not economic. That was the point of my
comment. :)

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apo
> ... Their aim was to reinvigorate enthusiasm for their cultural and
> linguistic roots and keep money within the French-Basque region by
> supporting local businesses. ...

Adding friction to financial transactions for the sake of cultural
reinvigoration seems like a desperate move. Anyone passionate enough about the
cause will want to spend locally anyway, so it's not clear that this
experiment is the best way to achieve the goal.

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devoply
In fact it's extremely effective. Just look at what the French have been able
to do in Quebec with all their various laws. This appeal to liberty and choice
never actually works, it's just a rhetorical technique to quell dissent.
People can't buy themselves out of bad corporate behavior. People can't choose
their preferred language. People are lazy and do what is convenient. If you
make anything less convenient they will prefer the convenient. For instance
take K-cups, marginal benefit and marginal convenience... massive adoption.

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johnchristopher
There are a lot of micro-currency in Western Europe. Personally I believe it's
a step back because it reeks of protectionism but it's all the rage among my
leftist friends (am a leftist too, but not pro micro-currency).

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username223
Not just protectionism, but a sort of micro-nationalism that Americans haven't
seen, because we don't have much history. For example, Spain calls itself a
nation, but Catalonia recently tried to secede, and if you visit, you'll hear
most people speaking Catalan. The Basques were recently blowing things up
(ETA). And Leon resents Castile enough that you will see road signs spray-
painted with "solo Leon" (only Leon), because "Castilla y Leon" was made into
a single province.

Europe is an old place, for better and worse. I question this stuff, but I
won't judge it.

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mparramon
In Barcelona, capital of Catalunya, most of what you'll hear is Spanish, not
Catalan. That does happen in some smaller cities or towns, though.

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cbnotfromthere
_" In Barcelona, capital of Catalunya, most of what you'll hear is Spanish,
not Catalan."_

Sorry if I may seem pedantic, but there is no such thing as "Spanish" language
(at least not inside Spain).

The language you are talking about is actually called "castellano"
(Castilian).

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spanxx
Spanish language is Castilian spoken by non-castilian people.

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dontbenebby
>There are several security features, including fluorescent orange ink, a
metal strip and, like government-printed currencies, a measure that is kept
secret from the public to further thwart forgery.

I suspect they won't be as successful at stopping forgery if for no other
reason than the fact that if someone is unfamiliar with this "currency" they
won't know it's security properties. (Especially one that's kept secret)

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justinclift
Hmmm, the "notes" shown in those pictures look very reproducible without much
effort.

Wonder if they have a counterfeiting problem? :/

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xrd
I'm curious about how this is legal in the EU. Is this because regions like
the Basque have that autonomy financially? This kind of thing is not an option
in the US, right? Is there a good write up anywhere that specifies when and
where this kind of thing could happen?

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crunchiebones
I was kind of hoping this was about the entire basque region using it's own
cryptocurrency ;)

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isoprophlex
the article mentions how monopoly-esque the notes feel. i assume they're
easier to forge than euro notes. maybe some cryptographic signature on the
notes would allow instantaneous verification of banknote authenticity, using
eg. only a cell phone?

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johnchristopher
How would that alone prevent copying ? Unless the actual note/id is linked to
some user (and then it has become way more complicated and expensive) ?

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patrickg_zill
I was wondering how they funded it, in this case with upfront fees.

See the "miracle of Wor"gl"
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%B6rgl](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%B6rgl)
for a different way they addressed the problem.

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ape4
Instead of brexit, Basque-it

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jacquesm
Some fraction of the Basque population has been aiming for an independent
state for a very long time, neither France nor Spain are in love with the
idea.

