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.

Please rest assured that we’ve taken great care in the shipping of your DVD.

We hold true to an ancient DVD shipping tradition passed down for over 5000 years. This very intensive practice is only achieved after years of training, meditation, purity of mind, and deep breathing exercises.

After a rigorous 17 step process of verifying the authenticity of your DVD, we donned silk gloves and placed it into a sacred box made of magic and lined with Unicorn fur, tied the box with a strand of Gypsy hair, and wrapped the whole thing in a snazzy looking faux gold leaf paper, with elm leaf inlay from Costco. Unfortunately, by the time it gets to you, all of that fancy stuff will likely have been picked clean by the greedy postal service employees. Please don’t be surprised to see just a plain cardboard box.

It’s surprising to see how my opinion of a seller can be so suddenly shaped but such a small detail. I now only wonder if this is the only message, or if there is more than one. I guess I will have to order another movie to find out…