The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 50, December 9, 2007, Article 29

WHERE'S GEORGE UPDATE

Dick Johnson writes: "A newspaper in my hometown carried
an article on local couple who are tracking the movements
of dollar bills.  They have entered 30,000 bills by
denomination, series and serial number. This was done on
the Where's George web site.  Official title 'United States
Currency Tracing Project.'

"It seems like a harmless pastime. It doesn't provide much
numismatic content, but one benefit seems to be it is
getting people to actually look at the currency that passes
through their hands. Could any intelligence be gained from
the mountain of data?

"Some bills are stamped with a 'Where's George' statement
and his web site address with an appeal to enter the bill's
serial number and your zip code. When one of these bills
is registered on the website it is a 'hit.'  These are
eagerly tracked by the person who first placed it back in
circulation it after registering it.

"Some guy with the assumed name of Wattsburg Gary has
entered over 800,000 bills. I checked the activity by
city and Wattsburg, Pennsylvania ranked high. You can
assume that was the result of Gary's frantic typing.
His fingers must be raw!

"In considering the characteristics of future coins I
proposed embedding a microchip in all high-value coins
(like the serial numbers on paper money).  Recording
these numbers will require electronic readers (to be
located in banks and large retail stores, for example).
Manually typing will be unnecessary. Sure will save wear
and tear on Gary's fingers in the future!

"If you have nothing else to do check on:
wheresgeorge.com  "

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum