Where's George?
post a comment | posted Aug 14
Apparently Steve thinks this is old news, but it's news to me. Yesterday I was shopping when I noticed one of my five dollar bills was marked with money graffiti. Along the top of the back side of the bill, hand-written in red ink, it said, "Please report sightings of this bill at www.where'sgeorge.com." I flipped the bill over and the "United States Federal Reserve System" seal had a tidy stamp around the perimeter, in blue ink: "Track this Bill www.wheresgeorge.com."
When I got home from my shopping excursion, I went to www.wheresgeorge.com. Where's George, I discovered, was founded in 1998 by one Hank Eskin, a database consultant. The site allows you to register your "Where's George" bill, thus receiving e-mail notifications of every subsequent place the bill shows up after you pass it along.
So I registered my five dollar bill. I believe I got it from the Wauwatosa Post Office: earlier yesterday morning I had gone in to send off a package to a friend; I paid with a twenty and got a wad of small bills in change.
I'm the second person to register this bill. The first was a guy named Gregory in Lombard, Illinois, who registered the bill on February 24 of this year. I'll get an e-mail message notifying me when the next person registers the bill, which, from the looks of it, could be a while. Guess I'd better go find a way to spend $5.