HTTP://WWW.WHERESGEORGE.COM

Have you ever wondered where your paper money goes after you spend it?

Possibly you've never been that bored, but I remember as a child and teenager writing little messages on bills to see if they'd ever come back to me. Once I even wrote my initials and address on a bill with the message "I'm tracking this bill, please send me a postcard". About a month later I got a card from someone in San Francisco, which isn't too far from me really, but I still thought it was cool... but I soon forgot about it. 5 years later I got a card from a kid in Vermont, which blew me away! I wonder if that bill is still out there?

I didn't mark anymore bills, but my curiosity remained, then one day aver a year ago I received in change at a coffee shop a bill with a stamp that read:

"See Where I've been,
Track Where I go next
WWW.WHERESGEORGE.COM"

Well, I could hardly wait to get back to my computer and check it out! I logged onto "WheresGeorge?", and entered the serial# of the bill and found out that it had come to me from Omaha, Nebraska, stopping in Bellvue, NE, and Wyoming on its way to me. (When you enter a bill at "WheresGeorge?" you will get back a list of all the cities/states where that bill has been, as well as travel time, distance and speed of each hop! )

You can see the tracking report for yourself at this URL:

http://www.wheresgeorge.com/report.php3?key=12ba23bbb9b5059a100e7c1e2f34bebb&entcnt=0

At Wheresgeorge you have the option of registering, which allows you to continue to track bills, and enter new bills of your own (you can enter any denomination, from ones to hundred dollar bills, although I find that ones travel the most and get the most "hits"). You can always enter bills to see their travel history without
registering first, but you won't be able to return later after you spent the bills and see where they go next.

Registration is free, and your privacy is respected. Your e-mail address will not be sold to spammers or used for any nefarious purpose. You will only get e-mail to notify you of new hits on bills that you enter, or possibly "anonymous e-mail" from folks who get your marked bills, if you choose to use the "anonymous e-mail" option.
I've been a WG user for over a year and have had no problems.

The point of "WheresGeorge?" is not to make money for Hank, the webmaster, but to have fun tracking your bills online, and by interacting with other "WheresGeorge?" users (there are thousands!) in the many message forums on the site.

There is a way cool "Your Bills" feature which tells you your current bill tracking stats. At the moment mine read like this:

You have entered 1,180 Bills worth $2,675.
Bills with hits: 272
Total hits: 349
Hit rate: 23.05%.
George Score: 852.
Your rank (based on George Score) is #443.

You have access to all your previous "Hits", and can add the best ones to your "Favorites".

You can also create your own profile to share your name, interests, favorite hits and any other information you care to, with other users of the site. You can see my profile at this URL:

http://www.wheresgeorge.com/user_profile_popup.php3?ukey=WGzSpkSpOImaY

Some of you may wonder if writing on currency is legal. While the law states that "defacement" of bills is illegal, I don't believe simply writing or stamping a message unobtrusively on a bill is truly "defacement". I suppose that this may be open to interpretation; The Bureau of Engraving and Printing defines "defacement" as "rendering a bill unfit for recirculation". You can read the legal details at the BEP website at this URL:

http://www.bep.treas.gov/fact2.htm

In any event, if any of this sounds interesting to you at all, please come on over to WheresGeorge.com and join in the fun!

And even if this sounds silly and useless to you, keep your eye open for any bills marked with the "www.wheresgeorge.com" URL, please log on and take the time to enter them, you will make someone's day!



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