Last month, amid a fanfare of local and national publicity, the first 10,000 Lewes Pounds were snapped up by eager residents.

The demand was so great that individual notes were changing hands for as much as £30 on eBay.

Transition Town Lewes, the group behind the launch of the complementary currency, has now printed in excess of 10,000 more notes and is urging Lewesians to get out into the town to spend them.

Oliver Dudok van Heel, from Transition Town Lewes, said: 'The notes are now available at the town's three issuing points (Lewes Town Hall, Mays General Stores and Richard's Butchers) and we hope there is enough out, to encourage people to start trading with them and to stop selling them on eBay or holding onto them.

'The response has obviously been great and people have been very patient.

'I think some people who bought the first ones were wondering whether or to keep hold of them but they will be able to get them whenever they want, so starting using them!'

Mr Dudok van Heel said more pounds would be issued when necessary.
More than 100 traders and businesses now accept the notes which have been introduced in attempt to support the local economy and Lewes traders.

The latest print run of the Lewes Pound have been in the shops since Saturday.

Lexi Dumont, a shop assistant at Mays General Stores, one of the three places in the town where residents can change their money into Lewes Pounds, said: 'We have shifted the first lot and we have just received a second batch.

'We're also getting a lot more back in trade, which is fabulous.'