Ken Royall, founder of the Lakes Currency Project, said: "Despite excellent support and widespread awareness of the initiative, the volume of LD£ in circulation has steadily been declining this year such that the level now being retained is below the amount needed to support a self-sustaining operation.
"A full analysis of the reasons for the reducing circulation clearly shows that contactless, mobile and even wearable payments are replacing paper currency at an unexpected and unprecedented rate.
"In response, the project has concluded that the world in which the company finds itself today is unlikely to be able to support the project's business model in the long term.
"In practice, this leaves the project unable to continue operating in its present form beyond the validity of the current 2019 LD£, which ends on January 31 2020."