Where’s George? A currency tracking project

This past week, while visiting Raleigh, I came across this particular $1 dollar bill from the Where’s George project.

This exercise consists of a series of bills that have been tagged, marked, and released into the open public as an experiment that will hopefully lead to a better understanding of how currency travels. It works something like this: once a person comes across one of these bills, before it’s passed along, he or she can register it on a website and write about how the currency was acquired. The website then keeps track of how the bill moves around, and if you choose to, it can notify you of further movement of your bill.


Screen shot of how my trip back to Puerto Rico added a few miles to the dollar bill. Funny that the website sees my trip as possible foul play.

The website component, although interesting, is a bit hard to use. If you do come across one of these bills, I recommend some patience with the interface and the information architecture found on it. As a data freak, I appreciated the information given to me, but it is hard to read and understand. Nonetheless, I am always thrilled when I come across projects like this, so be on the lookout, a tagged dollar bill might be in your wallet.