5 pives

The pive is a local complementary currency launched in Franche-Comté to encourage spending within the regional economy — part of a broader wave of French monnaies locales that accelerated after the 2014 ESS law formally recognized complementary currencies as a legal instrument for local exchange. Unlike many such schemes, the pive was designed with a redemption mechanism tied to participating businesses rather than functioning as a pure social currency, giving it a more transactional character than ideologically driven alternatives like the Toulouse sol-violette.

Security here is rudimentary by design — serial numbering and a barcode suffice for a currency whose anti-counterfeiting protection rests primarily on the smallness of its network.