Motivated by a “decades-old hatred of central banks,” retired law professor Giacinto Auriti last July began printing a currency he named the simec, after the Italian term for “econometric symbol.” The simec is the centerpiece of an eccentric monetary theory developed by Auriti, the 77-year-old scion of one of the oldest and wealthiest families in the town of Guardiagrele. He argues that the interest rate central banks charge on currency effectively halves the real value of money.
By August, Auriti’s neighbors were cashing in L85.3 million ($40,000) a day at a 1-to-1 exchange rate, using the simec to buy everything from Gucci handbags to Parmesan cheese. The attraction: About 10 percent of the town’s 400 store owners were accepting the simec as equal to L2, the rate at which Auriti pledged to redeem it. Before long, military police descended on the town and confiscated all the simecs they could find. A local judge, however, ruled that individuals could print money as long as it wasn,t counterfeit; the simecs were returned to Guardiagrele.
Auriti continues to print the notes, but after losing an unspecified amount of money supporting the simec, he no longer redeems the currency. (It has proved attractive to numismatists, who buy it for their collections.)
Although Auriti claims that he has the backing of legislators who will push the legalization of the simec, these efforts have been unsuccessful so far.
In the meantime, Auriti, who does not like taxes any more than he likes central bank interest rates, last month began distributing a new, nonconvertible “fiscal simec” designed to reimburse Guardiagrele’s 10,000 residents for a small portion of their taxes. In the operation’s first week, about 60 people took advantage of Auriti’s “new look” simec.
