in england a town has its own currency. i live near it. it has helped with the recession and i think might be a thing of the future small areas using their own currency when fiat fails. http://www.thelewespound.org/ it is great, successful.
Its illegal to do that here in the US. States can not make any money that is not coined in gold or silver. Towns can not print their own money. In fact there was this guy that created these coins called liberty dollars. The coins were made in silver. He was arrested for creating a "currency" that competed with the US dollar. I actually have a roll or two of those silver coins. They say $20 on the face and they are .999% silver oz coins.