Where's George Currency Tracking

Where's George is a website that tracks the "natural and geographic" circulation of paper money (the Canadian equivalent is Where's Willy).

The concept is that participants enter the serial number of their currency and then spend it with the hopes that future owners of the bill will also enter it, thus tracking the bill around the country (or the world!).

Most people who track currency at Where's George mark the bills that they enter, so those who get the currency next know to go online to track it. Most people use a rubber stamp to mark their bills, but some use colored permanent markers.

Unfortunately, most currency doesn't get tracked, and "Georgers" can wait months or years for a bill that they have entered and marked to be "hit" by someone else.

One may question the legality of writing on currency, and in fact, the website was once investigated by the Secret Service (who told WG that they can't sell the tracking stamps themselves b/c it is considered advertising on currency). As long as the marks don't render the bill useless, it is legal to mark them.

The first basic rule is doing things in the proper order. EMS - Enter, Mark, Spend. First you enter your bills at the Where's George Website. Once your bills are entered, THEN you can mark them with either a rubber stamp or a fine-tip permanent marker. THEN you can spend your bills as you usually would!

Following this order prevents the problem of having a marked bill in circulation that hasn't been entered in the database.

The other big rule is to not "dump" large quantity of marked bills at any one merchant or bank.

Finally, there are rules about circulating currency, such as the rule that you can't enter a bill, then give it to a friend to enter, etc. This creates artificial "hits", and artificially inflates your WG score (yes, there is a score based on several factors).