Davis Dollars

You have questions? Check out what we have to say. If you still have questions, drop us a line at our Contact page.

See the different categories of questions below: General and Business.

General questions:

Where can I buy Davis Dollars? Where are you guys located, anyway?

You can buy Davis Dollars at a few businesses around town. We’re finalizing our agreements with them right now, but we’ll add to this list as soon as we have them! Email us (nick at davisdollars.org) if you want to be updated when we have the list ready.

How do you prevent counterfeiting?

Like any bill (including US dollars), we can’t make Davis Dollars impossible to counterfeit. We just make it hard enough to do that it really isn’t worth it. How do we do this? It’s printed on an expensive, high-quality paper. It has a lot of colors so it’s expensive to photocopy, and each bill has a serial number on it. The serial number are printed in a metallic color, which is difficult to copy or reproduce, even digitally.

Hey, hasn’t someone launched (or talked about launching) a community currency in Davis before?

We speak to a lot of people around town who mention various attempts at different times to start community currencies – it’s obviously an idea that’s in the air. Good to know lots of people are thinking about it!

We’ve actually had difficulty getting in contact with anyone who has actually worked on one of these past currency projects, though. If you have, or you know someone who has, contact us and let us know! We’d love to talk.

Business questions:

What do I have to gain from accepting Davis Dollars?

Davis businesses have a lot to gain from accepting Davis Dollars. In many other communities, local businesses benefit when a community currency is launched, because people focus more on spending locally.

When we have spoken to community members, 75% of people said they’d change their shopping habits to patronize a business that accepted DDs. So any business can gain new customers, and Davis businesses collectively can shift business away from internet purchases. In addition, when someone makes a purchase in U.S. currency, businesses can offer to give their customers the ‘change’ back in DDs. By doing so, businesses can both spend their DDs, and also help increase the circulation of DDs in the Davis community.

When a business exchanges 10 Davis Dollars for $9.00, where does the extra $1.00 go?

We sell Davis Dollars at a rate of 10DDs for $9.50, so if we exchanged 10DD back into $10, we would lose $0.50 every time we did this. For nonprofits we offer $9.50 back for 10DD (exactly what we took in for the 10DDs), but for licensed businesses we can only offer $9.00 back to help cover administrative costs. Anyone can accept Davis Dollars without our permission, but you must sign our contract in order to convert Davis Dollars back into US Dollars.

How can I get the most out of the Davis Dollars I take in?

You may be able to find business services to spend the Davis Dollars on – for example, hire someone to run a table at the Farmers’ Market, or to design a website, or to provide legal advice. If you have a business need that you don’t see already provided on our website, let us know and we’ll try to help you find someone.

Can I convert Davis Dollars into US Dollars without signing a contract?

You don’t need to go through us! Anyone is permitted to sell Davis Dollars to anyone else. So you can always sell Davis Dollars to your customers. Feel free to let people know you sell Davis Dollars. You can even post that as a service on our website! We can only give you back US Dollars for your Davis Dollars if you sign a contract with us, however.

Why Davis Dollars?

To support and strengthen local community, we are not only working with businesses but also people to stimulate spending in Davis. When you receive Davis Dollars for providing a service, the first thing you are going to ask is “Where can I spend this DD?” That’s when our newsletter, blogs, service list, and social events come in handy. We can help bring you business by letting people know they can support your business and the Davis community at the same time. This unites local business and consumers together as team, benefiting not only you, the people, but also the city altogether.

How much risk am I taking?

The contract you can sign with us provides that the first 100 Davis Dollars you receive/ purchase can be fully refunded at a 1:1 scale. It is a risk-free trial period to give you an opportunity to decide if our service is benefiting your business.

How else can I control the way I receive Davis Dollars?

You may decide to only accept 25% of any purchase in DDs, or accept only a new customer’s first purchase in DDs. This way you can ensure you’re bringing in US dollars along with DDs. You can also offer make it clear that for Davis Dollars transactions, you can only offer change in Davis Dollars, and only if you have enough in your register – customers can choose whether to pay partly in US Dollars if they don’t have correct change in Davis Dollars. These strategies may turn away some potential new customers, but may be useful if you aren’t ready to accept lots of Davis Dollars.

Why else might I decide to accept Davis Dollars?

• To encourage people to spend locally when possible instead of buying things online, or from outside the community.
• To strengthen the community by supporting a currency that builds connections between people.
• To strengthen the local economy by cultivating expertise and exchange within Davis.

How does accepting Davis Dollars affect my taxes?

It doesn’t change how you pay taxes – you must pay taxes on Davis Dollars income the same way you pay taxes on other income.