According to a City of Urbana (IL) website, in 1933
When Illinois [closed] its banks in the depths of the Great Depression,
the Urbana Association of Commerce [issued] "Urbana money," which [was] used
for a month and [kept] the local economy alive.
Apparently local merchants guaranteed that when the banks reopened, the "Urbana" money could be exchanged for the real thing. My daughter learned about this in school. As she says, the money was orange and "looked like Monopoly money."
Image from DepressionScrip.com, a site chock-full of the wonderfully cheesy funny-money that kept many a community afloat during those dark days, with thanks to Jonathan for the research.
And having lived in Urbana for a while, I had never heard of this! Time to impress some friends. Thanks for the post!
Interesting story that Urbana managed to keep the local economy going by it self. Hadn't heard of that before.
Chicago: A place where you can actually do stuff and attend concerts.
UIC>UIUC.
Maybe you're right. If you ignore the entire "prestigious, top-40 institution on a Big Ten college campus" thing, of course.
Link: http://www.ithacahours.org/