Ever wondered where your money has been before it found its way into your wallet? Why people often say, “Ew! Wash your hands before you eat! You don’t know where the money has been!” Well, there is a way to know exactly where your money has been and whose grimy hands have held it before yours.

Wheresgeorge.com was launched for that exact purpose in December of 1998 by Hank Eskin. People who come across a bill marked with the Where’s George website can log on and enter the serial numbers of those bills to see who has done the same before them. The site tracks where the bill has been, how long and how far it has traveled from the past location and any notes entered by those who have held it before them, like where they got the money or the condition of the bill.

“Received George at the local Texico gas station he is looking a little worn, two corners folded over,” wrote someone from Blaine, Washington, on the bill’s tracking comments.

Like a modern day ‘message in a bottle,’ the appeal comes from being able to watch your money bounce around the country. Sometimes the world, on its natural spending trajectory.

“I guess you can say we are living vicariously through wheresgeorge.com,” says Mark DeJohn, who has been tracking his Georges since 2000, describing he and his wife’s daily bill logging as an addiction.

“We currently have bills that have traveled to London, Moscow, China, Japan, Spain and nine other countries and all these are in addition to the 46 states in the U.S. that we have been able to receive one or more hits in.”

DeJohn isn’t alone in his obsession. Some have taken their bill tracking hobby to new levels, calling themselves Georgers, creating Georgers societies and elaborate profiles that include maps and games to score all the different places their bills have ended up. They sometimes include biographies of themselves and their Georging history. Avid Georgers go out of their way to acquire more one dollar bills to increase their chances of getting “hits” when someone else enters the same bill.

“Let’s just say that we carry a lot more small bills currently and you can bet they are always stamped,” says DeJohn. “Heck, if we have unstamped bills on us and need to make a purchase, out comes the debit card.” He and his wife have entered more than 21,000 bills – still a far cry from the top user who has entered more than 459,000 bills into the website.

There are 12,621 California users all keeping their eyes peeled for the website stamped or written on bills. With thousands more users country wide and more signing in each day, where will your George go next?

CONTACT CROMELIN AT CATCROM@SFSU.EDU