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In May 2017, a group of Valais residents launched a new regional currency. Like the UK’s Bristol pound and the the Franco-Spanish Basque region's Eusko, it’s a complementary rather than replacement currency. Its banknotes are worth the same as Swiss francs – the country’s official currency – but can only be spent in participating businesses in the Valais, which so far includes more than 150 restaurants, artisans, farm shops and wineries. It’s a local initiative, backed by local people, that aims to boost the local economy, so it is apt that it’s been given a name with such local meaning: Farinet. The name Farinet is common in Valais towns: it’s a restaurant in Crans-Montana, a pub in Champéry, and an après-ski bar in Verbier where skiers dance on tables in their thermals. Tourists may not realise its significance, but locals know that all those popular nightspots are so called because their namesake, Joseph-Samuel Farinet, probably would have enjoyed dancing on tables himself.Ī roguish charmer, a lover of wine and women and an escaped convict, Farinet was a 19th-Century counterfeiter and a legend in these parts, even if the myth that now surrounds him is more colourful than the reality.Īfter fleeing from authorities in his native Italy where he was wanted on counterfeit charges, Farinet arrived in the Valais in 1869 and once again began minting fake money – specifically, 20 centime coins dated 1850. To court favour with the poverty-stricken locals, he was generous with his forged currency, in return gaining food, shelter and protection from the authorities who pursued him. In doing so, he not only evaded capture for many years but also liberated local people from debt, something that later earned him the nickname ‘Robin Hood of the Alps’. In 1880, at the age of 35, Farinet was finally cornered by police in a gorge above the medieval Valais village of Saillon where he fell, jumped or was possibly killed – a mysterious death that only added to the intrigue of his life. “In Valais everyone knows this story,” said David Crettenand, a member of the committee that established the Farinet currency. Farinet, a name that speaks to the ValaisansĬrettenand admits that naming the new currency after a notorious counterfeiter could create ambiguity, with some people asking if it’s fake, but that doesn’t bother him. He feels it’s more important that the name embodies the aims of the currency: to be rooted in the region, to foster networks between local people and to boost the local economy. “Farinet is a name that speaks to the Valaisans,” he said. “It’s very much a part of the region, and that’s the aim of the currency, to be regional.” It’s also a name the people here take pride in, something that was obvious when I visited Saillon, where Farinet met his unfortunate end and is buried.