Where's George: How to Track Where Your Money Goes

If you've never heard of Where's George you're not alone. The first time I heard about this website I had gotten a dollar bill as change from Burger King and on one of the dollar bills someone had written "go to Where's George (dot) com". So I went and saw that the person who had the dollar bill before me had entered the dollar bill into the websites data base. I did the same thing and now if someone else reads what's written on the bill and they visit the website they can also see where the bill's been and if they want they can enter where the bill is now.

It's easy and completely free to put the money's information into the websites database. If you want to you can register and keep track of all your bills. Whenever I get paper money now I always write "Go to Where's George (dot) com" on each of the bills before I use them. Then check back on the website to see if anyone else has entered where the bill ended up and there have been quite a few people that have done exactly that.

It's easy to find out if the bill you are holding has been on this site before. After getting to the website all you have to do is click on the "Enter a Bill" link, and enter the serial number, year and denomination of the bill. You will then see if the bill has had any hits, meaning it has been entered into the site before.

But just writing on the bills is not enough for some people, there is an entire movement going on with Where's George that most people aren't away of. The stamp-connection has rubber stamps that you can buy to stamp the bills you are tracking. They have rubber stamp kits and supplies and a lot of people are buying these because it's faster to stamp the address on a bill than it is to write it on them, especially if you are stamping hundreds of them.

There are also T-Shirts with a big "WG" logo on them, for people who want to wear it as well as write it.

There is also a controversy about this practice of writing or stamping the websites address (www.wheresgeorge.com) on the bills because defacement of U.S. currency is illegal. Some cashiers even go so far as to not accept the bills that have writing on them. The Where's George website has a forum where people can go and exchange funny stories about their bills, like having a cashier not accept the money because of the writing or stamp.

If you are a social butterfly then the Where's George? Meetup Groups are a great place to meet other people who enjoy this hobby. You can find meetups for practically anything.