*** Welcome to piglix ***

Where's George?

Where's George?
A screen shot taken from version 2.4 of the Where's George? website
A screenshot taken from version 2.4 of the Where's George? website, 2007
Type of site
Money circulation tracker
Available in English
Owner Where's George? LLC
Created by Hank Eskin
Website http://www.wheresgeorge.com/
Registration Optional
Launched December 1998; 18 years ago (1998-12)
Current status Active

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.

The site was established in December 1998 by Hank Eskin, a database consultant in Brookline, Massachusetts.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.

As of February 2017, the site says more than 269,000,000 bills, with a total face value of more than $1.45 billion, have been entered into the site database. To track a bill, users enters 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/Canadian locations. 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.

Where's George? is supported by advertising, sales of memorabilia, and by users who pay a fee for extra features. The "Friends of Where's George?" (FOG) program allows these users to access the website free of advertisements, access certain features that others cannot, and refresh reports on the user's entered bills. The standard FOG costs $8/month, while FOG+ costs $13/month. 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. Inspired by Where's George, Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, launched Stamp Stampede in 2012 to protest the influence of big money in politics. Stamp Stampede stamps messages like "Not to Be Used for Bribing Politicians" on dollar bills.


...
Wikipedia

...