Urbana Money

According to a City of Urbana (IL) 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."

Image from DepressionScrip.com, a site chock-full of the wonderfully cheesy funny-money that kept many a community afloat during those dark days, with thanks to Jonathan for the research.

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Posted on

February 6, 2008 at 8:41 pm by gail
Category: Money & Finance

10 comments to "Urbana Money"

Lemons
February 6th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
I live in Urbana– we now have a much steadier system in place. The entire town runs on the students’ cafeteria credits and Target giftcards sent from home.
gail
February 6th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Then we’re neighbors, Lemons.
gail
February 6th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
I teach at the Big U
su.wei
February 7th, 2008 at 1:14 am
muy interesante
Peter
February 7th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Wow, I never thought Urbana would get mentioned here

And having lived in Urbana for a while, I had never heard of this! Time to impress some friends. Thanks for the post!
Aar000n
February 7th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Hey, I know that place… I live there.

Interesting story that Urbana managed to keep the local economy going by it self. Hadn’t heard of that before.
Lemons
February 7th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Awesome. I learn at the Big U– only a freshman, though.
Alecks
February 8th, 2008 at 4:54 am
Urbana: a blip in Illinois’ ocean of cornfields with only Unofficial as any real local highlight.

Chicago: A place where you can actually do stuff and attend concerts.

UIC>UIUC.
Michael
February 8th, 2008 at 10:59 am
“UIC>UIUC”

Maybe you’re right. If you ignore the entire “prestigious, top-40 institution on a Big Ten college campus” thing, of course.
rdhd
February 11th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
FWI, many localities have their own currencies. They are obvious not recognized anywhere else, but they can be used in the area where businesses have agreed to accept them. Ithaca, NY is an example. They have what are called Ithaca Hours.

Link: http://www.ithacahours.org/

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