I can’t believe the top ten users on wheresgeorge.com has each registered over 100,000 bills. That’s 91 bills each day–every day–for three years solid. How does one spend 91 single dollar bills a day? For that matter, how does one spend $100,000 in cash over three years?
It’s a great public art idea. In fact, I had a similiar idea back in 1996 where I wrote “This dollar bill is now a work of art” and numbered each bill. So it’s just amazing to see a simliar idea really take off. They did a fantastic job with the site, you can even see a nice little map of all the places your bills have been.
The site has been around since 1998. That’s pretty old in internet terms. It’s no 1995 or 1996. I consider my college years to be old school internet. That’s 1997 and before. 95% of website from pre-98 aren’t very polished. They have a programmer’s feel to them. It’s kinda fun in that way. Around 1998 and 1999 is when sites began to look more professional. It’s always interesting to see sites that have been around since the mid to late 90’s and see how far they have come.
the image you have for this post that says, “Track this bill http://www.wheresgeorge.com“ is from a rubber stamp that wheresgeorge.com used to sell. They no longer sell the stamp: http://www.wheresgeorge.com/faq.php I wonder why. Perhaps the owner of the site got into some trouble with the feds.
I registered a bill on wheresgeorge.com a couple of years ago and have only ever received ONE email alert telling me where the bill I registered had gone! This is a great idea, sure, but people have to participate.
That’s probably why some people fill out 100,000 bills, cuz it takes that many to get any responses! 😀