Langenegger Talente
Langenegger Talente is the regional currency of Langenegg, a village of about 1,160 people in Austria's Bregenzerwald. Residents take out a monthly subscription, receive Talente worth slightly more than they pay in, and spend them at local shops and tradespeople, keeping purchasing power inside the village. Run since 2008 by the Allmenda cooperative together with the municipality, it has moved millions of Talente through the local economy and helped keep the village store alive. The paper notes are now moving to a mobile app and payment card as the scheme goes digital.
A rare long-running local currency that demonstrably retains purchasing power inside a small community and is now modernising, but euro-pegged and euro-backed with a centralised, single-village footprint — a strong community expression rather than a sovereign monetary system.
M69 Score
Scored against the Money2069 Manifesto — see methodology. Higher = more aligned.
Detailed Rating Breakdown
Issuance Model3x3.0
Talente are issued debt-free when residents subscribe and exchange euros for them, with a small bonus rewarding local circulation. Supply is elastic and demand-driven, but issuance is backed 1:1 by euro deposits and is not tied to an independent real-economy index, so it mirrors a euro voucher more than a sovereign issuance model.
Spending Power Stability2x3.0
Each Talent equals one euro, so spending power tracks the euro exactly — reliably stable at parity but inheriting the euro's long-run inflation, with no independent purchasing-power target of its own.
Fiat Independence & Interoperability2x2.0
The unit of account is the euro and the currency is fully backed by euro deposits, so it is monetarily euro-dependent. Its value to the M69 thesis is as a working local expression, but it does not settle against a sovereign base standard.
Traction2x3.0
Operating continuously since 2008 with about a fifth of village households subscribing and millions of Talente circulated, credited with keeping the local shop viable and recognised with a European rural-development award and national press. It is deliberately small (a single village) and the 2025 move to app and card is a live growth step.
Sovereignty2.0
A cooperative and the municipality jointly run a centralised ledger and could pause the scheme; it is jurisdiction-bound and not self-hostable or censorship-resistant, though it is a community-owned rather than purely private operator.
Governance3.0
Governed through the Allmenda cooperative's member structure alongside the municipality, giving members a real if modest voice, with decisions taken locally and transparently within the community.
Resilience3.0
Sixteen-plus years of continuous operation, a simple design any municipality could copy, and self-funding through subscriptions make it durable at its scale; it depends on continued municipal and cooperative commitment and centralised administration.
Inclusivity3.0
Low-cost to join, equal rules for all subscribers, and community-oriented, but participation is bound to a single village and its partner businesses rather than open to anyone beyond the locality.