Seventeen years after its launch amid the global financial crisis, the Lewes Pound, the UK’s last surviving local currency, has ceased circulation.
First issued in 2008 in the East Sussex town of Lewes, the currency became a symbol of independence and community resilience, created to support small businesses and keep money circulating locally. But the steady rise of cards and digital payments has finally brought the experiment to an end.
The Lewes Pound was launched just as Lehman Brothers, capturing the imagination of the press and public. Organisers had hoped for 100 buyers and 25 participating businesses; instead, 400 people bought the first run of 10,000 notes, and 75 shops signed up. The quirky notes — including a £21 denomination — featured figures such as radical philosopher Thomas Paine, who lived in the town.
Rob Hopkins, co-founder of the Transition Towns movement, which inspired the currency, recalled the launch night at the Lewes Arms pub: “It was such a magical, amazing evening. It was beautiful.”
Despite its charm, some retailers admitted the scheme was cumbersome. Shops needed dedicated till space, and residents who lived outside Lewes found it difficult to spend. As cash use declined — from half of UK transactions in 2009 to a quarter by 2019 — enthusiasm waned.
David Skeet, who runs Lewes Flea Market, described the scheme as “a little bit haphazard”, but said he liked the idea. Frances Sterry of Cheese Please said it may have been “a kind of gimmick”, but one that celebrated independent business.
Supporters point to the social impact of the Lewes Pound. A donate-a-drink initiative at the Lewes Depot cinema redirected funds to food banks, giving families the means to buy from local shops. Susan Murray, former mayor and one of the scheme’s organisers, remembered a grandmother who used the currency to buy her grandchildren Christmas books for the first time.
“It just feels like a year of mourning,” Murray said of the closure, shortly after the death of her husband. “But the currency changed lives.”
The Lewes Pound was part of a wave of UK local currencies including the Totnes, Brixton and Bristol Pounds, inspired by Transition Towns and earlier schemes in the US and Canada. The movement even influenced Europe: after the Totnes Pound appeared in the 2015 French documentary Demain, dozens of French towns launched their own currencies.
Hopkins said the “rise of plastic” sealed the Lewes Pound’s fate, but argued its principles remain vital: “The thing about local currencies was they stayed in that place. Jeff Bezos couldn’t hoard Lewes Pounds.”
About £10,000 of remaining backing funds will now be donated to local organisations including the Friday Food Market and Lewes Climate Hub.
Miles Jenner of Harvey’s Brewery, one of the first adopters, reflected: “In Lewes there is always a swirl of enthusiasm around anything slightly off the norm and makes us stand out as being different. I don’t think any of us thought it would change the world, but it was something everybody got behind.”
For many, the Lewes Pound’s legacy is not in what it bought, but in what it represented: pride in place, resilience, and the power of local communities to think differently.
