Thursday, November 29, 2007

Where's George? Project

The other day I discovered the above dollar bill. If you can't tell, the red stamp reads "Track me at www.wheresgeorge.com". I went, input the serial number (I have photoshopped out part of the number in the pic), where I filled in fields asking my location and to write a brief description about the condition of the bill.

There was only one other entry for this bill made 11 months ago; it was the initial entry. It had traveled 206 miles from Rochester, NY to me.

It got me thinking about this little bill of mine:
• How far had it actually traveled between then and now. Did it make a trip to Hawaii and back in someone's wallet?
• How many people have handled this bill?
• Was there anyone famous, important, or interesting?
• What had it been used to buy?
• Has it lived a mundane life, bouncing from person to person for innocuous things like paying for fast food, etc. Or maybe it was part of an exciting transaction like a big win at a racetrack? Or a hold up at a convenience store!
• How many people never even saw the stamp? How many people saw the stamp and did nothing?
• Since there was an 11 month gap in updates, was it stuck in a vault somewhere or in the middle of a pack of dollar bills?

I bookmarked the web page where I entered this bill's information, knowing that once I put it back into circulation it will be gone from me forever. And if I see the bookmark, maybe I'll check up on this little dollar bill and see where George has been!

This is such an interesting concept!
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3 comments:

ArichNY said...

Every so often something happens that causes me to think about where money has been, especially since I handle money for a living. (No comments, please!) A couple of weeks ago, I was at a local hangout and there were go-go boys dancing there that night. At one point, one of them had a dollar bill tucked in the g-string in the crack in his butt. I'm thinking about wearing rubber gloves now...

ArichNY said...

And I mean, when I handle money at the teller window...

Anonymous said...

This is off point, but I wish Congress could have used this stamp on Larry Craig and Trent Lott's asses. I am curious to know how widespread (geographically) their asses have been traded.