When I was a kid, back in the 60s, Gold Medal Flour had a contest using one dollar bill serial numbers. They'd publish a list of serial numbers on their bags of flour, and if you happened to have one of those serial numbers on your dollar, you'd win a big prize. Well being only about 10 years old, I was SURE I'd win the big prize...a new house...two new cars...and a trip to the Carribbean! A pretty good haul for a 10 year old. I'd faithfully compare my dollar bills' serial numbers with their list. Of course I had NO IDEA the amount of currency in circulation. I never even got close, but it was fun and I still remember turning my bigger bills into one dollar bills to increase my chances of HITTING IT BIG!

Me at about age seven, with my best friend Danny!

Some time during 2000, I was watching CNN (I'm a CNN addict) and saw a story about people tracking currency across the USA. I thought that was pretty neat, but forgot all about it, until May 20, 2001. That is the day I received my first "Wild George" (stamped "wheresgeorge" bill) in change for a latte at Early Morning Espresso on Main Street in Billings, Montana. I excitedly exclaimed to my husband, "HEY! I saw a tv news article on CNN about this...you can track this serial number and see where it's been, and where it goes." My husband just looked at me and said, "o-o-o-k?" We went to the "wheresgeorge" website as soon as we got home and entered the bill. I've been entering bills ever since and now he's hooked too. (See $teve, number one Georger in Montana.)

In over eight years of Georging, this is MY COOLEST HIT EVER! Click here for MY COOLEST HIT! Click here for my SECOND COOLEST HIT!

Although many of my co-workers and relatives think that "Georging" is a silly hobby, my husband and I enjoy it. We've both stooped so low as to cash checks at the bank and ask that we get our cash back all in one dollar bills. We get a LOT of strange looks from bank tellers!

One day my elderly Mother quietly sat and watched me as I stamped all of my currency with the "WheresGeorge" stamp. After I was done, she said, "I've never seen anyone do that before." Only then did I explain why I was stamping all of those bills. She just shook her head and said, "Who cares where it goes after it's gone, you can't spend it again." Well I have news for her...I received a $5.00 bill back in change a week after I'd entered it, and two of my $1.00 bills back in change. So I AM going to spend them again!

On our vacation several years ago from Montana to Seattle, my husband and I had a strange "George" experience. We came to a small town just outside of Moses Lake, Washington named GEORGE! Yes, Virginia, there really IS A GEORGE, WASHINGTON! Of course I had to enter a few bills in George, and explain to the cashier in the convenience store that "wheresgeorge" on the bills wasn't really referring to their town. I had several people at the store in line wanting to see the marked "wheresgeorge" bills there that day!

Some of my favorite questions or statements I get when I pay for my purchase in all $1.00 bills stamped in red:

• Are you a waitress?
• Did you just win a poker game?
• Did you just print these?
• Are you George?
• Do you know this is illegal?
• Did you get these like this from the bank?
• So YOU are the one marking ALL of these bills that I get through here ALL the time!
• These bills have GOT TO BE FAKE! (I've even had to wait at a cash register while the cashier called for the "counterfeit pen" to mark my one dollar bills to make sure they were not fake.)

I don't know if there is a strategy to stamping bills, but I like one-line stamps, and stamp only in the margins. I don't want my bills to look obnoxious. I prefer stamping in the top, front margin, but depending on how the bill was cut, sometimes I have to stamp on the bottom. Wherever I've stamped on the front, I stamp the opposite margin on the back with one line in 10 point font:

"TRACK THIS BILL - www.WheresGeorge.com."

I specifically use both upper and lower case letters in the website address so that people can see exactly what it says the first time they glance at it. It seems to work very well, as my hit rate is nearly 50%!

ABOUT ME

$teve and I were married on October 7, 2000. I am a mother of two daughters, ages 16 and 20 and stepmother to three grown stepchildren. I am a member of the organization AmericaIsWatching.org and am an active advocate against injustice in America.

I LOVE aircraft and flying, which might have come from the fact that both of my parents worked for airlines when I was born, and while my mom was pregnant with me, she used to taxi commercial aircraft into hangars for the night. I like to tell people I've been flying before I was born! My dad worked for Northwest Airlines in Great Falls, Montana. When I was 10 years old, he'd put me on the morning flight from Great Falls to Minneapolis, and give me a roll of dimes. I'd spend a few hours in the Minneapolis terminal (which I knew like the back of my hand) playing the pinball machines, and I'd catch the afternoon flight home in time to go home with my dad from work. Occasionally I'd talk him into sending me to Seattle for the day and I'd do the same thing. That was back in the 1960s when things were much safer. Now I'd be afraid to send my kids flying anywhere by themselves, let alone having them spend the day alone in a big airport terminal! Through growing up in airports, I learned to love flying and love planes in general. We live fairly near the airport, so get to hear the cool planes as they fly over for takeoff or landing. But, I wish we lived closer, as they don't usually pass directly overhead.

One highlight of our trip to Seattle several years ago was seeing an SR-71 aircraft at the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. If you ever get to Seattle, you HAVE to go see that Museum, it is AWESOME! Also, visit the Boeing Assembly plants, and watch the big jets actually being built!

Another really GREAT place to go for the aircraft buff is the restoration facility in Everett at the airport. There you can see old aircraft in various stages of disassembly and re-assembly. They let you walk around under the aircraft, through the parts laying on the floor and on benches, and really take an "up close and personal" tour. There is no admittance fee, they only ask for your donations to keep the facility running with an all-volunteer staff. Most of the restored aircraft are then sent to the Smithsonian. On July 27, 2003, I read the following about a plane we had seen being restored at the facility: "The Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the first pressurized luxury commercial transport, today took off from Boeing Field in Seattle for its permanent home at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Upon arrival in Washington, D.C., it will be enshrined in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a companion facility to the National Air and Space Museum located at Dulles International Airport.

The restoration began in June 1994 by a team of volunteers and Boeing employees, who fabricated parts, reinstalled interiors and completely restored the airplane to like-new condition. Nearly seven years later the restoration was complete, and the airplane rolled out in 2001 to begin testing and certification. The effort experienced a setback in June 2002 when the pilots had to ditch the airplane into Elliott Bay in Seattle during a test flight.

The volunteers and employees went back to work to repair what they had restored. This second effort took a year to complete."

I'd like to thank Hank for providing us with this website, and for the years of entertainment this hobby has given to my husband and myself. We are looking forward to tracking our bills for many years to come.