I was in line last night waiting to pay for a couple items, and while I was waiting for the person in front of me to finish I started to look at one of the 4 $1 bills in my hand. One of them had an edge that was stamped with the words "Currency Tracking Project". That was all I could see. I separated that bill from the rest and noticed more stamps on all edges and on both sides of the bill. Another stamp read the name of a website that lead me to "www.WheresGeorge.com". Granted the site design is not so hot but the concept behind the project is amazing. Apparently it has been around for some time. I registered my $1 bill and will soon use it and place it back out there to see where it ends up next! The cool thing is that when the next person receives it, I'll get an email letting me know it was registered and be able to see where its travels have been. Strange and amazing.
My bill is at its 4th "noticed" pitstop. Still a young George. From "Where's George?" it reads "This bill has traveled 252 Miles in 2 Yrs, 83 Days, 22 Hrs, 52 Mins at an average of 0.31 Miles per day. It is now 242 Miles from its starting location." Apparently my George started out as a gamblin' man since it was first registered in Vegas and has been to Skyforest/CA, Santa Ana/CA, and now here. The first user wrote "Thank You for entering this GAMBLIN GEORGE. This bill will start its recorded journey across the USA in "FABULOUS" Las Vegas Nv at the FLAMINGO CASINO. I will be shootin craps, or playing video poker with it. WHEN, and WHERE, will it turn up next ?". Now I have it! It will probably start back on its journey today. I wrote "dmmh" in a small corner too.
The top noted bill has traveled "4,191 Miles in 3 Yrs, 12 Days, 17 Hrs, 25 Mins at an average of 3.8 Miles per day" and started in Ohio and went to Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Texas, Lousiana, back to Texas, then Utah and Michigan.
This is what Wikipedia had to say about it: "Where's George? is a website that tracks the natural geographic circulation of American paper money. Its popularity has led to the establishment of a number of other currency tracking websites, sites that track other objects—such as used books—and it has been used in at least one research paper to provide statistical patterns of human travel in the United States. The site was established in December 1998 by Hank Eskin, a database consultant in Brookline, Massachusetts. Where's George? refers to George Washington, whose portrait appears on the one-dollar bill. In addition to the one-dollar bill, 2-, 5-, 10-, 20-, 50- and 100-dollar denominations can be tracked. The one-dollar bill is by far the most popular denomination, followed by 20-dollar bills."
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