Editing Ithaca Hours (section)

==The currency==
Ithaca HOURS were not backed by national currency and cannot be freely converted to national currency, although some businesses did agree to buy them.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-06/21/content_898734.htm |title="New age town in U.S. embraces dollar alternative", www.chinadaily.com.cn, Jun. 21, 2007 |newspaper=[[China Daily]]|access-date=2009-07-10}}</ref>
HOURS were printed on high-quality paper and used faint graphics that would be difficult to reproduce. Each bill was stamped with a serial number, to discourage [[counterfeiting]].<ref name="forbes" /><ref name="onetenth">{{cite web |author=M. Tye Wolfe 10/02/2002 |url=http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=5571232&BRD=1395&PAG=461&dept_id=216620&rfi=6 |title=M. Tye Wolf, "Making Money - The brand new one-tenth Ithaca Hour bill hits the streets", ''Ithaca Times'', Oct. 2, 2002 |publisher=Zwire.com |date=2009-06-13 |access-date=2009-07-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301201215/http://www.zwire.com/cancel/cancellation.asp?brd=1395 |archive-date=2014-03-01 }}</ref>

In 2002, a one-tenth hour bill was introduced, partly due to the encouragement and funding from [[Alternatives Federal Credit Union]] and feedback from retailers who complained about the awkwardness of only having larger denominations with which to work; the bills bear the signatures of both HOURS president Steve Burke and the president of AFCU.<ref name="onetenth" />

Ithaca HOUR notes began to fall into disuse for several reasons. First, the founder of the system, Paul Glover, moved out of the area. While in Ithaca, Glover had acted as an evangelist and networker for HOURS, helping spread their use and helping businesses find ways to spend HOURS they had received. Secondly, the use of HOURS declined as a result of the general shift away from cash transactions towards electronic transfers with debit or credit cards.  Glover  emphasized that every local currency needs at least one full-time networker to "promote, facilitate and troubleshoot" currency circulation.