From the E.F. Schumacher Society:

"With the rapid globalization of the economy, our financial relations have grown more and more abstract. We collect interest without knowing how or where such profits were made and order by mail from catalogues sent by people we have never met. We no longer know the stories of the things we use in our homes nor assume responsibility for the consequences of our investments. Can we picture the artisan who made our kitchen table or her children who were fed by its purchase? Have we walked the forest which was the source of its wood?

By favoring regionally based economies, local currencies are a tool for bringing a human face and sense of place back into our economic transactions. The use of local currencies by consumers shows their commitment to purchase goods from within the bioregion. Merchants with local scrip will seek increased regional sources for the items in their shops, leading to new job opportunities for those unemployed and underemployed.

Skills forgotten and abandoned will be renewed. Fields, farms, rivers, and forests will be carefully stewarded as their contribution to the human community becomes more directly understood. This interweaving helps bring the community together in all its mutuality-ecological, economic, social, and cultural.

To record and celebrate the growing local currency movement and those pioneers working hard in their hometowns to implement the dream of a stronger, more viable, more equitable regional economy, the E. F. Schumacher Society offers this directory prepared and updated by its staff. Please support these initiatives if they are in your own area."
LINK: http://www.schumachersociety.org/lcnews.html