I read an interesting article in the paper the other week about Zimbabwe, where the Z$ has been inflated so vastly that it is valueless for all practical purpos

I read an interesting article in the paper the other week about Zimbabwe, where the Z$ has been inflated so vastly that it is valueless for all practical purposes. The government there have started to ration petrol and issue vouchers entitling the holder to 20 litres of the stuff. People started to swap these vouchers between themselves for other goods and services, and in many areas of the black market petrol vouchers are approaching the status of a de facto currency. Instead of a loaf of bread costing Z$6 billion or something, it'll cost you two litres of petrol. It has fascinating implications--because the official currency is backed by nothing and is now meaningless, these bits of paper backed by a tangible quantity of a valuable commodity (ie. petrol) have effectively become their own currency. People are trading them with no intention of redeeming them for petrol, in the same way as you'd never go and ask for £10 of gold for your tenner. Perhaps something inventive like this would be a better way of running these town currencies than simply pegging them to the pound.