wheresgeorge.com

What Where’s George Is

Where’s George (at wheresgeorge.com) is an online platform that tracks the geographic circulation of U.S. paper money. It isn’t about the Federal Reserve or banking records. It’s a grassroots tracking project built around ordinary people entering information about bills they’ve handled, then seeing where those bills show up again.

Started in 1998 by Hank Eskin, the site’s name plays on George Washington—whose portrait appears on the U.S. $1 bill—but you can track most U.S. denominations, including $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 notes.

The idea is simple: users enter some basic details about a bill—its serial number, location (often a ZIP code), and date—and the website records that as the bill’s first logged “sighting.” If someone else enters the same bill later, you get a “hit,” and the site tells you how far it traveled and how long it took.

What You Do on the Site

Here’s how it works step by step:

1. Create an account. It’s optional for browsing, but required to track bills you’ve entered.
2. Capture the bill info. You type in the bill’s serial number and series, add your ZIP code and the date you handled it.
3. Enter notes (optional). Some people describe where they got the bill or add a comment for fun.
4. Spend the bill naturally. Ideally, you just spend it like normal cash, hoping someone else will enter it next.
5. Wait for a hit. If someone else enters that bill later, you get notified of the hit with travel history—distance and time.

People often write or stamp the website’s address on bills before spending them, in hopes others will log them on the site. The official rules say you shouldn’t deliberately give marked bills to friends or mail them, because the tracking is meant to reflect natural circulation.

Why It Exists

At its core, Where’s George is a hobby project, a currency-tracking game of sorts. Participants—often called “Georgers”—enjoy seeing where their bills travel. Some people make it a challenge, trying to get “bingo” patterns like hits in all 50 U.S. states.

Beyond hobby fun, the database has been used in academic research. A notable example: physicist Dirk Brockmann and colleagues analyzed data from the site to model patterns of human travel in the United States. That work informed research on infectious disease spread, showing how movement patterns could follow predictable statistical laws.

Community and Culture

Where’s George isn’t just a tool; it grew into a community:

• Users interact in forums on the site to share hits and tips.
• There have been meetups and gatherings in various cities where Georgers meet in person.
• Some bills become well-known within the community when they rack up many hits or travel far.

The site also has a user ranking system called the George Score, which measures how many bills you’ve entered and how many hits you’ve gotten.

Rules and Etiquette

A few key points to keep in mind if you want to use the site:

• The goal is natural circulation—you should enter bills and then spend them normally. Deliberately moving bills around (mailing them, trading with friends) is discouraged because it messes with the tracking data.
• Writing or stamping bills isn’t illegal per se, but the site itself doesn’t encourage defacing currency. U.S. law forbids defacing money in ways that make it unfit for circulation.
• “Hits” count when different people log the same bill at different places and times; if the same person enters the bill again, that’s not considered a genuine hit.

What Counts as a Hit

A hit is when a bill someone else has entered shows up later entered by another user. That lets the system calculate:

• How far the bill traveled
• How long it took to get there

Most bills never get hits, and some only get one or two. A small number travel far and get entered multiple times.

Site Features and Extras

Where’s George offers some optional features:

• A paid subscription program (“Friends of Where’s George?”) that removes ads and gives extra features.
• Apps or mobile interfaces to enter bills more conveniently (the site mentions an app in updates).
• Statistics pages showing data for entered bills and popular travels.

Limitations and Things to Know

Tracking is only as good as user participation. If no one enters a bill after you, it will sit in the database with no travel history. There’s also bias: bills in active communities or high-traffic areas tend to get more hits.

The site doesn’t track bills older than certain series (e.g., pre-1963 money).

Why People Like It

Users enjoy:

• Seeing where their money goes
• Connecting with a quirky niche community
• The mix of hobby and data exploration
• Challenges and patterns (like big travel distances)

It’s a blend of simple fun and crowdsourced data that anyone can contribute to.

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Key Takeaways

• Where’s George is a U.S. currency tracker that logs the movement of paper money over time.
• You enter a bill’s serial number and location; if someone else enters it later, you see hits with travel info.
• The project started in 1998 and remains active, with millions of bills tracked.
• Participation is meant to reflect natural circulation of money, not artificial redistribution.
• Data from the site has been used in research on human travel and mobility.

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FAQ

Is Where’s George free?
Yes. Basic tracking and account creation are free. There are optional subscription features, but nothing is required to use the core service.

Do I have to stamp my bills?
No. Stamping or writing the site URL on bills is a user choice to increase the chance others will enter them. It’s not necessary for tracking.

Is it legal to write on money?
U.S. currency laws prohibit defacing bills if they’re made unfit for circulation, but simply putting a small website address or note is generally not a crime. The site itself doesn’t encourage marking bills.

Can I track bills from outside the U.S.?
Yes. The site lets users outside the U.S. enter foreign location codes so international sightings can be included.

Why don’t bills show up more often?
Most bills never get re-entered; it depends on whether someone else who holds that bill logs it. High-traffic bills in busy regions tend to get more hits.