ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between contexts of socio-economic demise and the experimentation with monetary plurality. It reviews a handful of cases in which the proliferation of complementary currencies emerged bottom upwards in contexts of severe distress. The chapter presents monetary plurality as a temporary but ubiquitous solution in the context of war, hyperinflation and depression. It suggests that some historical currency circuits were extremely vulnerable in terms of their legality and acceptability, while others evolved within institutional sophistication and lasted in time. Emergency currencies were not only issued in domestic, foreign or historical currency, for example Peseta Silver Certificates, Gold Mark, Gold Dollar, but also as a claim for local goods depending on the region in which they were issued. The stamp scrip was dependent on regular money to afford many supplies and was plagued with problems of low managerial capacity and poor accountancy in the exchange systems.
