La Gabare
La Gabare is a paper local currency used in the Loir-et-Cher and Touraine departments of central France. One gabare equals one euro. Local associations issue the notes, and the euros people exchange for gabares stay in a guarantee fund. The first notes circulated in Touraine in 2016. In June 2025 the association APMLC41 announced a relaunch, with plans to hire two staff and to study a digital version.
Territorial euro-parity paper currency for Loir-et-Cher and Touraine: debt-free fully-backed issuance and a documented charter, relaunched in June 2025 with paid staff planned, but small merchant and member numbers and full fiat dependence keep it in the weakly-aligned band typical of its class.
M69 Score
Scored against the Money2069 Manifesto — see methodology. Higher = more aligned.
Detailed Rating Breakdown
Issuance Model3x4.0
Notes enter circulation only when members exchange euros at counters; issuance is debt-free, fully backed by a guarantee fund, and supply contracts on redemption. Association-permissioned issuance, no algorithmic link to real activity.
Spending Power Stability2x3.0
Hard 1:1 euro parity via full reserve; stable against euro prices by construction but inherits euro inflation. No independent stability mechanism, single-jurisdiction access.
Fiat Independence & Interoperability2x1.0
Euro parity, euro reserves, euro unit of account; the currency is a local expression of fiat, not independent of it. Standard for the territorial euro-parity MLC class.
Traction2x2.0
Small but alive: roughly 20-25 accepting merchants, 61+ members, 5,000+ gabares in circulation across two departments. Notes since 2016; a June 2025 relaunch announcement plans two paid staff, and OSM merchants in Tours carry acceptance tags edited into 2026. Fiat-parity unit of account.
Sovereignty2.0
Volunteer nonprofit in a single national legal framework; custodial guarantee fund at a partner bank; a single general assembly vote or regulatory change could end it. Paper cash gives day-to-day payment privacy.
Governance3.0
Nonprofit association with member assemblies and a signed charter of ethical practices; rules are documented but deliberation is not public and monetary rules are policy, not code.
Resilience3.0
Circulated through a quiet phase and relaunched in June 2025 with new staffing plans; paper system is simple to maintain and rebuild, but funding is grants and membership dues and the team is small.
Inclusivity3.0
Open membership at low cost across its territory, paper cash needs no device or ID for spending; benefits stay local by design. Reach is limited to two departments, and no anti-concentration mechanism beyond the spending-only design.