Of late I have been amusing myself by participating in the Where’s George? Project, which seeks to allow users of the website to track paper US currency as it travels around the country. Most users who regularly enter bills have a stamp to mark each bill that they register with the site, but some write various things on the bill as well. A person who finds one of these bills can come to the website, enter the serial number and the series and see where the bill has been, as well as being the next “link” in the chain of record.
I started this years ago when I was still a college student at Luther and got a few bills registered and a few hits as well, but then I gave it up for the longest time. Only recently did I think to check into the site, see that it is still running, and decide to get going on it again.
This time I bought a stamp from a 3rd party so I could easily make my bills visible to the potential recipient. It states, “See where I’ve been, Track where I go next! www.wheresgeorge.com” Lately, any green that comes past my wallet has been blessed with a registration and a stamp before it gets spent in my daily travels.
And, so far, I have yet to get a single hit on a bill.
For my total WG career, I’ve entered 131 bills worth $422. Of these, 3 have gotten a hit, for a whopping 2.29% hit rate. Now, I’m a bit confused about this, because I thought I would have better luck with this these days vs. back in 1999/2000 when I started this. Almost everyone has the Internet nowadays, don’t they? And would you imagine that, in general, if you saw a bright red stamp that said the words above you’d probably haul it to your computer and give it a whirl?
So why am I not getting any hits?
Very confusing. Perhaps none of the bills are leaving my hometown, where the population is probably less computer savvy than others, and therefore the bill isn’t getting enough exposure. Or perhaps, given that I just re-started this again recently, I haven’t given them enough time to really propagate out in the “wild”.
So, if you find a bill and it has a stamp on it, head on over to WheresGeorge.com and register the darn thing. It’ll take you all of 5 seconds — it’s that easy — and you’ll really make someone’s day on the other end of the string. And for you Canadians, they even have WheresWilly.com! (Sorry, Aussies, I don’t think anyone has started a, “WheresTheOddlyColouredMoney.com” for you folk.)
CRIMES (CURRENCY) ACT 1981 – SECT 16
Defacing or destroying current coins or current paper money
A person shall not, without the consent, in writing, of an authorized person, intentionally deface, disfigure, mutilate or destroy any coin or paper money that is lawfully current in Australia.
Penalty:
(a)
in the case of a person, not being a body corporate—$5,000 or imprisonment for 2 years, or both; or
(b)
in the case of a person, being a body corporate—$10,000.
I’m shocked they don’t track you and throw your butt in jail LOL
I’m not sure about web address or anything but there is a book thing like that. They stamp the inside and they track the books. Once a person has finished reading a book they then ‘hide’ the book somewhere .. say a park or something then they log on to the website and give people clues as to where they have hidden the book. Or they just leave them somewhere so someone can find it. Weird but cool I think!
The Code of the United States differs in its description of what is considered “defacement”:
“Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined not more than $100 or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”
The phrase, “…with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued…”, is the part cited by the WheresGeorge.com website. In fact, the owner has had the US Secret Service contact him at the inception of the website (the SS is responsible for the currency of the USA). They had no qualms about the site, nor about marking bills, what they asked him to do was to stop selling the stamps that had “www.wheresgeorge.com” on it, as using currency for any sort of advertising is strictly forbidden. So, he did, and hasn’t had problems from the SS since.
Obviously, Australia’s code differs and is a bit stricter about it. The other site you’re thinking about is BookCrossing.org, and that’s a neat one, too. Not that I can ever bring myself to let loose a book.