I was hoping to do an entry sooner. I how have several pictures to upload. One is of a bill that I had to turn in to be retired. I don’t know what the bank does with it. It’s possible that they send it in based on my request, but I doubt that’s enough. I’d think that the bill has been worn out enough that they would send it in.

Even then, what happens to it? Is it sent to some special location where someone makes a final decision? Granted, bills are relatively cheap to print, but given the number of bills out there, I don’t think that the government wants to be paying to have just any bill replaced. Is there a minimum amount of wear and tear? I’ll have to look into that.



I also found two interesting bills. One is a ten that was marked with some sort of stamp. It’s in Spanish and I can’t make out enough of it to put into any sort of translation software. As you can see from the picture, there’s one stamp that’s pretty clear and another big one that’s sort of clear. There’s also a third one on Hamilton’s hear that looks like “OO” or something. There’s nothing on the back that would give me any clues.



The other bill is a single with an outline made from a red marker. I think that in this case, someone just got bored and had a red marker handy. I have to wonder how many bills there are out there that fall victim to such boredom. I’ve seen a few more elaborate, similarly marked bills. In one case, someone actually refused it as payment because the person actually covered a great deal of the bill. He had most of the upper right corner of the front of the bill decorated with a black magic marker.








In other news, I got some pins in the map that I have for Where’s George. The first state that I did was Florida, simply because that’s where I had the most cities. It wasn’t easy to find most of them. I knew many of the cities just because I live near them.

I had to use MapQuest to find most, though. This meant that I had to find the city or ZIP code, copy it into MapQuest and then try my best to find or approximate the location. I didn’t bother with a few of the cities that I couldn’t find simply because they were so close to cities that I already had.



Next came New York and Arizona, which ranked second and third in terms of number of cities. Those were a little easier, only because there weren’t so many hits in each and the cities tend to be more spread out.

The remaining states shouldn’t be that hard. It looks like I have no more than six cities per state, which should allow me to break it up more. I almost gave up with Florida because I had 80 cities and I didn’t want to break it up over two sessions. It makes it hard when you get a new city and you don’t know whether to do it now or wait. If you get several new cities, it can be confusing.

In any event, I should have more to post soon. Whether or not I’ll get around to it is another question.

Two hits

I finally got my first D. C. hit. That means that I now have D.C. county bingo. Granted, it’s pretty easy. Still, I’ll take what I can get. The next-easiest county bingo is Delaware, which I’d like to aim for next, not that there’s much I can do about it from Miami.

I also got my first real Canadian hit. I got one earlier, but it turned out that it was in Miami Beach. I may have mentioned it earlier. I figure that someone’s using a Canadian postal code as their default and neglected to change it when they came down to Miami.

Those are the only two real exciting pieces of information for now.

I think I finally figured out why I haven’t been getting a lot of hits on twos. People are collecting them. This doesn’t come as a complete surprise to me. I knew coming into this that many people either collect them or send them to the bank. That’s why I try to spend only a few at a time.

However, I went into 7-Eleven today to buy something and paid with two $2 bills. The cashier put them under the cash drawer. When I asked about it, she said that her manager collected them. There are two bills that I’ll probably never get a hit on.

The next place that I spent $2 bills was Taco Bell. I paid with three. The guy at the register asked if I had any more. I traded out the rest of the bills I had for two fives and two singles. He also swapped out what I had paid with from the register. I’m somewhat hopeful that he’ll enter them and/or spend them.

I did spend two $2 bills at Starbucks today. The person helping me said that he had never taken them in at the store before. He asked someone else what to do with them. There’s a strong possibility that he may swap them out and enter them.

I’d definitely like more hits on my Toms. I’m going to ask for more on Tuesday if I can. I’m hoping that next time, if I get a lot that they’re all new.

Three new bills

I’ve got three more pictures to post. One is a bill with hole burned in it. It looks like the hole was made with a cigarette. The thing that I find odd is that it’s right beneath the signature. I have to wonder about the set of circumstances that led to someone doing that. Do you get bored one night and just start burning things? “Hey, Ned! Look at what I’m gonna do!”

And yet, they spent it. Here I am commenting on what they did. I think I may have gotten this one from a bank. I wonder why no one took it out of circulation.

Here’s another one that I find odd. When I showed this one in the Where’s George chat room, the best that we could figure out was that someone may have been saying something against the Federal Reserve. I’ve heard of anti-WTO sentiment, but never anti-FRB sentiment. Franklin Roosevelt hasn’t been around for a while, so I doubt that it’s some sort of smear campaign. What could FR stand for? Any comments on what this might be would be appreciated.

I think that this one is fairly obvious. Someone was trying to use the G to help spell out Gangsta. Here’s another case where I wonder. Does this person get a good feeling out of having their work seen, yet remaining anonymous? I don’t suppose I’m helping matters much by bringing attention to them.

All of these bills have been logged on Where’s George. We’ll have to see where the go next. Speaking of which, I got more $2 bills. I actually got 50 of them, but about 20 were 1976 series. I’m going to save those; the rest are entered, marked and either spent or in my wallet. I’m really encouraged by that hit.

I Guess People Really Do Spend Twos

It looks like all of that stamping wasn’t for nothing, after all. I finally got a hit on a $2 bill. The actual hit comes from Hollywood, but it looks like the person got it not to far from the bank where I originally asked for it. I guess that people really do spend twos. I want to get more. Maybe I’ll ask for some twos later in the week. Pay day is coming up soon.

I suppose it’s appropriate. This is the one-year anniversary of my joining Where’s George. Yes, it was one year ago today that I found my first wild bill. If I recall, I got it at Aventura Mall. The rest, as they say, is history.

I also found some more interesting bills. One bill was one that I found a while ago, but for some reason, neglected to post. All I can say is that it’s purple. Beyond that, I can’t really say what it’s supposed to be. Is it a word? I don’t know. Maybe the aliens have finally gotten around to trying to communicate with us.

I also found another bill, this time a twenty, with some more legible writing on it. In fact, it can actually be read from both sides. (The other side isn’t as clear, though.) What this person was trying to say to society is beyond me. I could never understand why people write random numbers, letters and phrases on bills. Do people really have so much money that they can afford to use it as scrap?

This same bill has the portraying of Andrew Jackson with a bit of red eye. They red eye may just be the result of boredom. It may also be some sort of covert message, such as people who photograph presidents have problems with their flash. Again, I’m open to comments with explanations. It almost looks like someone is trying to cross out the eye.

There was actually another twenty with markings that I wanted to swap out, but I didn’t want to dump a lot of singles and the only twenties I had hadn’t been entered yet. Unfortunately, it went into the deposit, so it’s off limits now. I’m sure I’ll find more monetary oddities soon.

More interesting bills

I found two really interesting markings on bills the other day. I have yet to figure out what they say, though. One looks like it says “4 BiZZLE” or something to that effect. The other could be Maueli, whatever that means. Is it a name? Is it a code word? I can't really read it that well. (If anyone can identify either word, please leave a comment. )


I’m thinking that the first is a tag and the other is simply a name. I have to wonder if people just want to put a piece of themselves out there or if they plan on seeing their bills again. I guess that’s the advantage of Where’s George.

I also got a map set up. The plan is to put pins in it for all of the cities that I get hits in. I need to get a lot more pins. I think at last count, I have close to 200 cities. I have 100, but I want to get at least 200 more. There’s no point in getting 100 when I know I’ll have to get more so soon.

The other day, I actually posted my first review on Epinions in a few months. I’d like to post more, but I just haven’t been able to find the time. I guess it’s one of those things that I have the time, but I just don’t take advantage of it. I could stay home one day and just write stuff, but I don’t.

I’m beginning to see what my brother was saying. When you work a long day, you get home and you just want to rest. When you have a day off, you have other things you want to do. For me to write a review would kill the day. It’s not that I can’t. It’s just that by the time I get home and eat dinner, my shows come on if it’s a night that they’re on. Other nights, I go on mIRC.

I have this odd feeling that there’s something else I wanted to post, but I can’t think of what it was. I’m sure it will come to me right after I post this.