Where's George?

Last updated

Where's George?
Wheres george.png
A screenshot taken from version 4.0 of the "Where's George?" website, 2007
Type of site
Money circulation tracker
Available inEnglish
OwnerWhere's George? LLC
Created byHank Eskin
URL http://www.wheresgeorge.com/
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedDecember 1998;25 years ago (1998-12)
Current statusActive

Where's George? is a website that tracks the natural geographic circulation of American paper money. Its popularity has led to the establishment of a number of other currency tracking websites and sites that track other objects, such as used books. Statistics generated by the website have been used in at least one research paper to study patterns of human travel in the United States. [1]

Contents

Overview

The site was established in December 1998 by Hank Eskin, a database consultant in Brookline, Massachusetts. [2] [3] Where's George? refers to George Washington, whose portrait appears on the $1 bill. In addition to the $1 bill, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 denominations can be tracked. The $1 bill is by far the most popular denomination, accounting for over 70% of bills with "hits" (explained below), followed by $20 bills, and the $5 bill a close third. [4]

As of February 11, 2023, the site says more than 319,000,000 bills, with a total face value of more than $1.716 billion, have been entered into the site's database; [5] the daily influx of bills was noted in August 2022 as about 16,000 new bills a day. [6] To track a bill, users enter their local ZIP code, the serial number of the bill, and series designation of any US currency denomination. Users outside the US also can participate by using an extensive database of unique codes assigned to non-American locations, while users based in Canada are able to use their postcode to indicate the bill's location. Once a bill is registered, the site reports the time between sightings, the distance between sightings, and any comments from the finders (called "user notes"). The site does not track bills older than series 1963. [7]

Where's George? is supported by advertising, sales of memorabilia, and by users who pay a fee for extra features. [2] The "Friends of Where's George?" (FOG) program allows these users to access the website free of advertisements, access certain features others cannot, and refresh reports on the user's entered bills. The standard FOG costs $8/month, while FOG+ costs $13/month. [8] Eskin states that the "Friends of Where's George?" program will always be optional and payment to use the site will always be at the individual's option. [8]

Hits

A "hit" occurs when a registered bill is re-entered into the database after its initial entry. Where's George? does not have specific goals other than tracking currency movements, but many users like to collect interesting patterns of hits, called "bingos". [9] One of the most commonly sought after bingos involves getting at least one hit in all 50 states (called "50 State Bingo"). Another common bingo, called "FRB Bingo", occurs when a user gets hits on bills from all 12 Federal Reserve Banks. [10]

Most bills do not receive any responses, or hits, but many bills receive two or more hits. As of November 2020, the site recorded about 5,000 entries for found bills daily. [6] The approximate hit rate is around 11.4%. Double- and triple-hitters are common, and bills with 4 or 5 hits are not unheard of. Almost daily, a bill receives its 6th hit. As of August 2023, the site record is held by a $1 bill with 17 entries. [11]

To increase the chance of having a bill reported, users (called "Georgers") may write or stamp text on the bills encouraging bill finders to visit www.wheresgeorge.com and track the bill's travels. [2] Bills that are entered into the database, but not marked, are known as "naturals", "stealths", or "ghosts". If a bill entry violates the established rules of "natural circulation" (e.g. a user has found the same bill twice, a user directly traded a bill with another person who is also a user of the site, a user has had more than 20 bills wind up with another user, etc.), the hit is allowed, but it is marked as an "alternate entry". If a user claims a "wild" (A bill found in circulation that has been marked or stamped with wheresgeorge.com as having already been entered on the site.),[ further explanation needed ] they are the submitters' "child". [12]

Controversy

The site does not encourage the defacement of US currency. [13] In October 1999, when interviewed for The New York Times , Eskin commented on why the Secret Service has not bothered the webmaster over possible defacement of US currency: "They've got better things to do. They want to catch counterfeiters counterfeiting billions of dollars." [3]

In April 2000, the site was investigated by the United States Secret Service, which informed Eskin that the selling of "Where's George?" rubber stamps on the web site is considered "advertising" on United States currency, which is illegal under 18 U.S.C.   § 475. [14] The site's administrators immediately ceased selling the rubber stamps; no further action against the site was taken. [2] At least one spokesperson for the US Secret Service has pointed out in print that marking US bills, even if not defacement, can still be illegal if it falls under "advertisement". [15] However, a Secret Service spokesman in Seattle, Washington, told The Seattle Times in 2004: "Quite frankly, we wouldn't spend too much looking into this." [2]

Where's George? and geocaching

Examples of marked bills, with one bearing the site's address in handwriting, and the others marked by rubber stamping. The serial number for the central bill has been redacted out, which is commonly done to prevent people from entering the bill into the system without physically possessing it. WGBill.jpg
Examples of marked bills, with one bearing the site's address in handwriting, and the others marked by rubber stamping. The serial number for the central bill has been redacted out, which is commonly done to prevent people from entering the bill into the system without physically possessing it.

The Where's George? site says it "prohibits trading or exchanging bills with friends, family or anyone known to the bill distributor for the purpose of re-entry". [16] [17] This rule is to encourage natural circulation of the currency, and to prevent multiple fake hits from happening on any bill. As a result, all bill entry notes containing the word "geocache" or "cache" are tagged as a geocache bill. The site has also dropped a separate listing of "Top 10 Geocache bills" and is cautioning that, if geocache sites are used too often, "all Geocache bills will be removed from this site". [18] [ further explanation needed ]

George Score

The "George Score" is a method of rating users based on how many bills they have entered, and by how many total hits they have had. The formula is as follows: [2]

This logarithmic formula means the more bills a user enters and the more hits the user receives, the less the user's score increases for each entered bill or new hit. Thus, a user's score does not increase as quickly when the user has entered many bills. User ranking can decrease based on inactivity (failure to refresh the "Your Bills" report). Wattsburg Gary, the user with the most bills entered (over 2 million entries per the Wheresgeorge database) has an official George Score of over 1,700 when refreshed, and often holds the #1 rank. [19] While bulk entry is allowed, the site prohibits marking bills and depositing them into financial institutions. [16]

Community

Where's George? includes a community of users who interact via forums. The forums divide into several categories, from regional to new-member-help threads. Some members of the site participate in "gatherings", held in cities around the United States. Several gatherings have become annual events, varying in scope and size. [20]

The 2006 documentary by Brian Galbreath, WheresGeorge.com, gives insight into the hobby, hobbyists, and their gatherings. The twenty-seven minute movie features interviews with site creator Hank Eskin, "Georgers" at a St. Louis, Missouri gathering, and narrated information and statistics about the site and culture. The film aired on PBS member stations WTTW Chicago and WSIU-TV Carbondale, IL. [21]

Use in research

Although Where's George? does not officially recognize the bills that travel the farthest or fastest, some have approached it as a semi-serious way to track patterns in the flow of American currency. [22]

Money flow displayed through Where's George was used in a 2006 research paper published by theoretical physicist Dirk Brockmann and his coworkers. The paper described statistical laws of human travel in the United States, and developed a mathematical model of the spread of infectious disease resulting from such travel. The article was published in the January 26, 2006, issue of the journal Nature . [23] Researchers found that 57% of the nearly half a million dollar bills studied traveled between 30 and 500 miles (48 and 805 km) over approximately nine months in the United States. [24] A short clip of a Brockmann's presentation on the subject from the IdeaFestival has been posted on YouTube. [25] In 2009 "Where's George?" data have been used to attempt to predict the rapidity and pattern of projected spread of the 2009 swine flu pandemic. [26]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geocaching</span> Outdoor recreational activity

Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called geocaches or caches, at specific locations marked by coordinates all over the world. As of 2023, there are over 3 million active caches worldwide.

Federal Reserve Notes, also United States banknotes, are the currently issued banknotes of the United States dollar. The United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces the notes under the authority of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and issues them to the Federal Reserve Banks at the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The Reserve Banks then circulate the notes to their member banks, at which point they become liabilities of the Reserve Banks and obligations of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Note</span> Type of paper money that was issued from 1862 to 1971 in the United States

A United States Note, also known as a Legal Tender Note, is a type of paper money that was issued from 1862 to 1971 in the United States. Having been current for 109 years, they were issued for longer than any other form of U.S. paper money. They were known popularly as "greenbacks", a name inherited from the earlier greenbacks, the Demand Notes, that they replaced in 1862. Often termed Legal Tender Notes, they were named United States Notes by the First Legal Tender Act, which authorized them as a form of fiat currency. During the early 1860s the so-called second obligation on the reverse of the notes stated:

This Note is a Legal Tender for all debts public and private except Duties on Imports and Interest on the Public Debt; and is receivable in payment of all loans made to the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Currency bill tracking</span> Process of tracking the movements of banknotes

Currency bill tracking is the process of tracking the movements of banknotes, similar to how ornithologists track migrations of birds by ringing them. It is usually facilitated by any one of a number of websites set up for the purpose, which can track currency among the users of that website. A user may register a bill by entering its serial number, and if someone else has already registered the bill, then the "route" of the bill can be displayed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EuroBillTracker</span> Web service for tracking Euro notes

EuroBillTracker (EBT) is a website designed for tracking euro banknotes. It was inspired by the US currency bill tracking website Where's George? The aim is to record as many notes as possible to know details about their distribution and movements, follow it up, like where a note has been seen in particular, and generate statistics and rankings, for example, in which countries there are more tickets. EuroBillTracker has registered over 220 million notes as of September 2023, worth more than €4 billion.

Large denominations of United States currency greater than $100 were circulated by the United States Treasury until 1969. Since then, U.S. dollar banknotes have been issued in seven denominations: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100.

Where's Willy? is a website that tracks Canadian paper money, most commonly $5 bills, but also higher denominations. "Where's Willy" is free, supported by users who pay a fee for extra features. The name Willy refers to Sir Wilfrid Laurier - the seventh Prime Minister of Canada whose portrait appears on the $5 banknote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silver certificate (United States)</span> Paper currency used between 1878 and 1964

Silver certificates are a type of representative money issued between 1878 and 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency. They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Fourth Coinage Act, which had effectively placed the United States on a gold standard. The certificates were initially redeemable for their face value of silver dollar coins and later in raw silver bullion. Since 1968 they have been redeemable only in Federal Reserve Notes and are thus obsolete, but still valid legal tender at their face value and thus are still an accepted form of currency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austro-Hungarian krone</span> Currency of Austria-Hungary, 1892–1918

The krone was the official currency of Austria-Hungary from 1892 until the dissolution of the empire in 1918. The subunit was one hundredth of the main unit, and was called a Heller in the Austrian and a fillér in the Hungarian part of the Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DoshTracker</span>

DoshTracker was a currency bill tracking website that allows pound sterling banknotes to be tracked around the United Kingdom and abroad. Originally launched in 2001, it was relaunched in 2012.

Banknotes that are no longer in issue in Canada, and are being removed from circulation, are said to be "withdrawn from circulation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counterfeit money</span> Imitation currency produced without the legal sanction of a state or government

Counterfeit money is currency produced outside of the legal sanction of a state or government, usually in a deliberate attempt to imitate that currency and so as to deceive its recipient. Producing or using counterfeit money is a form of fraud or forgery, and is illegal in all jurisdictions of the world. The business of counterfeiting money is nearly as old as money itself: plated copies have been found of Lydian coins, which are thought to be among the first Western coins. Before the introduction of paper money, the most prevalent method of counterfeiting involved mixing base metals with pure gold or silver. Another form of counterfeiting is the production of documents by legitimate printers in response to fraudulent instructions. During World War II, the Nazis forged British pounds and American dollars. Today, some of the finest counterfeit banknotes are called Superdollars because of their high quality and imitation of the real US dollar. There has been significant counterfeiting of Euro banknotes and coins since the launch of the currency in 2002, but considerably less than that of the US dollar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counterfeit United States currency</span> Attempting to mimic United States money

Counterfeiting of the currency of the United States is widely attempted. According to the United States Department of Treasury, an estimated $70 million in counterfeit bills are in circulation, or approximately 1 note in counterfeits for every 10,000 in genuine currency, with an upper bound of $200 million counterfeit, or 1 counterfeit per 4,000 genuine notes. However, these numbers are based on annual seizure rates on counterfeiting, and the actual stock of counterfeit money is uncertain because some counterfeit notes successfully circulate for a few transactions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Currencies of Puerto Rico</span> History of money in Puerto Rico

The currencies of Puerto Rico closely follow the historic development of Puerto Rico. As a Province of Spain and a territory of the United States, Puerto Rico was granted the use of both foreign and provincial currencies. Following the Spanish colonization in 1502, Puerto Rico became an important port, with its own supply of gold. However, as the mineral reserves ran empty within the century, the archipelago's economy suffered. The Spanish Crown issued the Situado Mexicano, which meant that a semi-regular shipment of gold from the Viceroyalty of New Spain would be sent to the island, as a way to provide economic support. Between 1636 and 1637, Philip IV of Spain imposed a tax which had to be paid using a revenue stamp. Inspired by this, Puerto Rico began producing banknotes in 1766, becoming the first Overseas Province to print 8-real banknotes in the Spanish Empire and which in the Spanish government's approval of subsequent issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fractional currency</span> Series of United States dollar banknotes

Fractional currency, also referred to as shinplasters, was introduced by the United States federal government following the outbreak of the Civil War. These low-denomination banknotes of the United States dollar were in use between 21 August 1862 and 15 February 1876, and issued in denominations of 3, 5, 10, 15, 25, and 50 cents across five issuing periods. The complete type set below is part of the National Numismatic Collection, housed at the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian Institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Money burning</span> Deliberate burning of money for effect

Money burning or burning money is the purposeful act of destroying money. In the prototypical example, banknotes are destroyed by setting them on fire. Burning money decreases the wealth of the owner without directly enriching any particular party. It also reduces the money supply and slows down the inflation rate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stamp Stampede</span>

Stamp Stampede is a grassroots campaign mobilizing people across the United States to stamp messages on American currency in support of passing a constitutional amendment to Get Money Out of Politics. Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, spearheaded the campaign. They promote stamping through the distribution of rubber stamps, public stamping activities and national tours in the Stamp Mobile. The rubber stamps include different messages, such as: "Money is not free speech," "Not to be used for bribing politicians," "Corporations are not people; amend the Constitution," and "The system isn’t broken, it's fixed."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Three-cent nickel</span> US copper-nickel three-cent coin (1865–1889)

The copper-nickel three-cent piece, often called a three-cent nickel piece or three-cent nickel, was designed by US Mint Chief Engraver James B. Longacre and struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint from 1865 to 1889. It was initially popular, but its place in commerce was supplanted by the five-cent piece, or nickel.

The National Bank of Ukraine has issued four banknote series since 1996. All banknotes in denominations of ₴1, ₴2, ₴5, ₴10, ₴20, ₴50, ₴100, ₴200, ₴500 and ₴1,000 issued after 2003 are considered legal tender. All of them depict an important person in Ukraine's history on the obverse and a landmark place on the reverse. The lowest four denominations are no longer issued in banknotes and are intended to be gradually substituted by coins, though they remain common. There have been four commemorative banknote issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States two-dollar bill</span> Current denomination of United States currency

The United States two-dollar bill ($2) is a current denomination of United States currency. A portrait of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States (1801–1809), is featured on the obverse of the note. The reverse features an engraving of John Trumbull's painting Declaration of Independence.

References

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