According to a City of Urbana website, in 1933
When Illinois [closed] its banks in the depths of the Great Depression, the Urbana Association of Commerce [issued] "Urbana money," which [was] used for a month and [kept] the local economy alive.
Apparently local merchants guaranteed that when the banks reopened, the "Urbana" money could be exchanged for the real thing. My daughter learned about this in school. As she says, the money was orange and "looked like Monopoly money."
Pictures from DepressionScrip.com, thanks to Jonathan
Here you go:
http://www.depressionscrip.com/illinois/IL-Urbana10.html
Posted by: JWebb | February 06, 2008 at 07:15 PM
Oh that's cool. Leave it to Jonathan!
Posted by: Pixie | February 06, 2008 at 07:24 PM
Let's all hope our economy's not headed for that kind of deflationary spiral again. . .
Posted by: JWebb | February 06, 2008 at 07:39 PM
Thanks for the research, JW!!
Posted by: gail | February 06, 2008 at 07:41 PM
Oy! True Jonathan... on the other hand, how nice would it be to live somewhere where the trust and community was so great that we could use "Urbana Money" if it ever did.
<3
Posted by: Pixie | February 06, 2008 at 11:47 PM
Amen.
Posted by: JWebb | February 07, 2008 at 01:10 AM