Bristol pound
The Bristol pound (£B) was a form of local, complementary, and/or community currency launched in Bristol, UK on 19 September 2012. Its objective was to encourage people to spend their money with local, independent businesses in Bristol, and for those businesses to in turn localise their own supply chains. At the point of the close of the digital scheme in August 2020, it was the largest alternative in the UK to official sterling currency, and was backed by sterling.
£B5 and £B10 banknotes | |
| Unit | |
|---|---|
| Plural | Bristol pounds |
| Symbol | £B |
| Denominations | |
| Symbol | |
| Banknotes | |
| Freq. used | £B1, £B5, £B10, £B20 |
| Demographics | |
| User(s) | Bristol |
| Issuance | |
| Central bank | Bristol Credit Union |
| Website | bristolpound |
The digital currency ceased operating in August 2020 and Bristol pound accounts have reverted to sterling accounts at the Bristol Credit Union. The Bristol Pound CIC then developed Bristol Pay, which sought to both offer an e-money peer to peer payment platform that could generate income for charitable projects in the city, and to create a range of token systems to encourage a culture change in how people thought about economic value in relation to social capital and environmental capital. However, Bristol Pay was shut down mid 2023.