In a fossil-fuel economy, money floats free of nature. Notes and digits multiply at will, backed by banks rather than by land or energy. In a wood economy, the opposite is true: money grows no faster than the coppice.

Minting from the Coppice

Each parish sets aside a small copse as the source for its coin blanks. Every year, when seasoned wood and biochar are measured in the storehouse, the parish decides how many coins to mint. The number is limited by what the coppice has yielded.

Coins are turned on a lathe, dipped in a resin unique to the mint, and branded with a parish mark. The result is a currency that can be held in the hand, trusted by touch and scent, and recognised as local.

Equal Issue

At midsummer each adult villager receives the same number of coins. This equal issue ensures that no one is left without fuel. The coins circulate through trade and labour, but wealth in the wood economy arises not from hoarding tokens, but from skill, diligence, and cooperation.

A Closed Currency

Wood coins do not leave the parish. They cannot be exchanged for national currency, which prevents speculation or inflation. Instead, they circulate only inside the community and are always redeemable for cordwood or biochar at the storehouse.

Surpluses — charcoal, timber, furniture — may be sold outside the parish, but payment comes in national currency. That money buys salt, linen, or medicines. The wood currency remains closed and local, protecting its balance.

Anchored in Energy

Every coin represents a tangible unit of fuel. A single coin might redeem for a sack of seasoned logs worth around 100 kilowatt-hours of heat. With household demand measured in coins, the link between energy, money, and survival is transparent.

The Strength of Limits

A coppice grows at its own pace. So too must the currency. No council can inflate the supply. No bank can lend beyond the trees. The coppice itself is the mint, and nature sets the limit.