Owen Sound: the proposed first penny city

Owen Sound, Ontario is the proposed first pilot city for the Paper Penny, and every word of that sentence is doing honest work. Proposed: the idea has not been adopted, approved, or endorsed by the City of Owen Sound, its council, or its business associations, and nothing is in circulation.

Why Owen Sound? It is the right scale for a real test: a compact downtown of independent merchants along the harbour, a community small enough that a voucher’s rules can be explained face to face, and large enough that success would mean something. It is also where this project’s builders already live and work, which matters: a pilot should be run by people who shop on the street they are asking to trust them.

What would a pilot look like? A published rule set, a small voluntary group of participating businesses, paper vouchers verifiable by QR against a public ledger, and a standing promise that any merchant or resident can quit at any time. What it would never look like: money. The Paper Penny is a community voucher, not legal tender and not a Royal Canadian Mint product. If Owen Sound says yes, this page becomes a record; if it says no, this page says that too.

How the Paper Penny QR system would work (PaperPenny.ca) · Which cities use the Paper Penny? · The builder's public plan (mikeseiler.ca)