NEW COLLECTIBLE FOR NUMISMATISTS

Some communities are printing their own "money" to encourage shopping. The special money is sold at a discount but can be spent for full value. Cities in Michigan, New York, North Carolina, and Massachusetts are trying this to encourage folks to buy from local stores. It's an idea first tried in the Great Depression. Although the bills cannot look like federal money or claim to be "legal tender," they interest collectors who specialize in alternative types of money--like wooden nickels or even trade beads.

BE CAREFUL WITH PLASTIC...

Are you a shopaholic? Or more likely a collectorholic? Scientists have been doing tests to find out what makes us spend money. Beware. We buy more if we use a credit card or are unhappy. The insula, the area of our brains that registers negative feelings like bad smells, becomes more active when we use cash. There is no negative emotion when we use plastic. The insula also registers disgust when we think a purchase is too expensive. But we tend to ignore negative feelings when we're unhappyand then we tend to overpay. So go to your next antiques show with a friend who makes you happy and a bundle of twenties. And find the perfect antique at a bargain price.

"PONZI SCHEME"

The biggest money news this week is the $50 billion loss that resulted from a Ponzi scheme run by Bernard Madoff, a trusted New York money manager. This time mainly millionaires, not average Joes, lost their millions when Madoff announced all the money was gone. Friends, his own son, charitable organizations, college endowment funds, foreign banks, union retirement funds and individuals who were retired or planning to retire were wiped out. We talked to a friend of a friend of a friend who had $200 million invested with his old buddy Madoff. It is probably all gone. He says he will survive because he has several houses that can be sold and a huge, multimillion-dollar modern art collection.

The moral of the story is, as always: diversify your investments. We have known many collectors who were able to pull through a financial crisis by selling their collections. Your collections and the other contents of your house may actually be a kind of savings account.

We checked to see where the term "Ponzi scheme" originated. It's named for Charles Ponzi (1882-1949), who emigrated from Italy to the United States in 1903. The idea is simple. Ponzi took money from investors and promised a high return. The money he used to pay off the first investors came from later investors. He never had a money-making business. When he ran out of new investors, the scheme collapsed and investors lost all their money.

LOOKING FOR TREASURES AT HOME

If you don't find any valuable papers or money in Grandma's books, try slitting the paper dustcover on the back of the paintings and prints hanging on the wall. The elderly will often hide money in places like that. Also look for money taped to the bottom of bureau drawers. Hiding valuables under the mattress seems to have gone out of style.