Le Val'heureux
Le Val'heureux is the local currency of the Liege region in Belgium. One val'heureux equals one euro. Only states may issue money in Belgium, so the association issues it as a voucher for local spending. Members buy it with euros and spend it with more than 330 shops, artisans and producers across the province. It comes as paper notes and as an electronic account with a phone app. A non-profit association has run it since June 2014, and about 150,000 val'heureux are in circulation.
One of Belgium's oldest local currencies, twelve years live, with more than 330 accepting businesses and public backing from the City of Liege and several communes. The design is clean and debt-free but fully euro-dependent, and the association publishes very little: no reserve figure, no membership count, no statutes and no dated news. It sits just below its French peers in this catalogue, and the missing disclosure is the reason.
M69 Score
Scored against the Money2069 Manifesto — see methodology. Higher = more aligned.
Detailed Rating Breakdown
Issuance Model3x4.0
IM-01 3, IM-02 5, IM-03 3, IM-04 5, IM-05 4 (avg 4.0). No debt anywhere in the design: every val'heureux exists because a euro was paid in, and supply expands and contracts with exchange and reconversion. IM-01 stays at 3 because one asbl is the sole issuer, and IM-05 is 4 rather than 5 because reconversion is a professional-side process rather than an automatic one.
Spending Power Stability2x3.0
SPS-01 3, SPS-02 3, SPS-03 2, SPS-04 5, SPS-05 3, SPS-06 2 (weighted 3.2). Parity has held at 1 val'heureux to 1 euro for twelve years, confirmed on the commune of Plombieres' own page. SPS-03 is 2 rather than 3 because no reserve figure is published anywhere the association owns, which is the one place it scores below the comparable French currencies.
Fiat Independence & Interoperability2x1.0
FI-01 1, FI-02 1, FI-03 2, FI-04 1, FI-05 1, FI-06 2, FI-07 1, FI-08 2 (weighted 1.3). A euro by definition, held in euros at Triodos, with a bank transfer as the standard way in. There is no oracle, no index and no stated path away from the euro, so a euro failure passes straight through.
Traction2x3.0
TR-01 4, TR-02 5, TR-03 1, TR-04 3, TR-05 2, TR-06 3, TR-07 4, TR-08 3, TR-09 4, TR-10 3, TR-11 4 (weighted 2.9). Twelve years old with 330-plus merchants, city and commune backing, and a merchant network still being edited in OpenStreetMap in August 2026. TR-01 is 4 rather than 5 because the association publishes no dated news at all and has no events scheduled; TR-03 is 1 because no membership figure exists on any source.
Sovereignty2.0
SO-01 2, SO-02 2, SO-03 2, SO-04 3, SO-05 3, SO-06 3, SO-07 2, SO-08 3, SO-09 1 (weighted 2.1). One Belgian asbl holds the reserve, the electronic accounts and the merchant charter. The paper notes are the only part that works without it. SO-09 is 1 because the monetary rules are association policy with nothing technical enforcing them.
Governance3.0
GO-01 3, GO-02 3, GO-03 2, GO-04 3, GO-05 3, GO-06 2, GO-07 2, GO-08 3 (weighted 2.5). The asbl form gives it a general assembly and a formal decision path, and the site lists an Assemblee Generale as a standing event type. GO-03 is 2 because neither statutes, accounts nor assembly outcomes are published on the site, which is a real gap for a citizens' currency.
Resilience3.0
RE-01 3, RE-02 2, RE-03 3, RE-04 5, RE-05 4, RE-06 3, RE-07 2, RE-08 4, RE-09 1 (weighted 2.7). Simple, offline-capable in its paper form, and it has come through the covid years and twelve years of operation. RE-07 is 2 because the asbl started a professionalisation process in 2025 specifically to make its own activity sustainable, which is an open question rather than a solved one.
Inclusivity3.0
IN-01 2, IN-02 3, IN-03 2, IN-04 4, IN-05 4, IN-06 3, IN-07 4 (weighted 3.2). Non-profit with no seigniorage and identical rules for every member. IN-03 is 2 on the operator's own account: in RTBF coverage a spokesperson said the currency mostly reaches ecologically minded, comfortable consumers rather than people under financial pressure, and users have to find both an exchange counter and an accepting shop.