Ever wonder what happened to that crumpled dollar bill, after you fed it into the soda machine or used it to buy a whoopee cushion?
At a Web site called wheresgeorge.com, you have a chance to find out. The site helps people track their money as it moves around the world. One user saw her $1 bill go from New Jersey to Ireland.
How does it work?
A user registers an e-mail address at the site and enters the serial code and year of each bill he or she wants to track, as well as the Zip code where each bill was found. The user then writes "www.wheresgeorge.com" on the bills and spends them.
With any luck, a future owner of one of those bills will notice the writing and check out the Web site. If a finder joins and enters the bill in the system, the site will alert the person who registered it. It's "a hit," as "Georgers" say.
The site's been on the Web since 1998, when it was created by Hank Eskin, a computer consultant in Brookline, Massachusetts.
"It's a fun, free diversion," Eskin says. The site is free, supported by advertising, sales of T-shirts and other memorabilia, and by users who pay a fee for extra features.
If you haven't seen one of these bills, it's no surprise. There's about $600 billion worth of U.S. paper money circulating worldwide, according to the Treasury Department. In contrast, only about $101 million has been stamped "wheresgeorge." The bill with the most "hits" has been registered 13 times. But more than a million registered users seem to be obsessed with it.
Users compete for a "George Score," which takes into account how many bills they've entered and how many "hits" Users compete for a "George Score," which takes into account how many bills they've entered and how many "hits" their bills get. Most high-ranking players have entered about 60,000 bills apiece. (One has entered more than 124,000 bills.)
Another goal is getting hits from all 50 states. That's what Scott Prizten of Bryan, Texas, is trying for. "So far, I've got 42 states and the District of Columbia," he says.
Imitators have sprung up around the world. Germans can play "Wo Ist Mein Geld" (Where's My Money?), the Dutch play "Where's the Money?" and the Japanese play "Osatsu" (which means, simply, "bill").
Serious Georgers pay cash for large purchases and use a special rubber stamp to mark their bills.
Eskin often is asked whether defacing currency is illegal. But the U.S. Treasury Department says it's all right to write on money, as long as the writing doesn't deface the bill so much that it's unusable.
And some people wonder if sitting at a computer typing in dozens of serial numbers isn't kind of, well, dopey. Fans say you have to be intrigued by the thrill of seeing where money goes.
Says hard-core Georger Tom Walsh, of Georgia: "You either get it, or you don't."
-- Dallas Morning News
