The Long and Winding Road of a Dollar Bill Fun Families.com

The Long and Winding Road of a Dollar Bill

Ever wonder where a dollar bill goes once it leaves your wallet? Have you ever found yourself wondering what cool places a bill has visited before it lands in your hand as change from lunch? Up until recently, there was no way to get answers to these questions, but with the combination of the internet and some equally curious and technologically brilliant individuals we all can watch, virtually, our currency traverse the United States, and conceivably, the world from the comfort of our own home.

The web site WheresGeorge.com allows anyone to participate in this currency tracking experiment assuming you have two things: a piece of U.S. (or Canadian) currency and access to the Internet.

WheresGeorge.com allows you to enter in the specifics of any bill before you and your kids spend it, thus sending it back into circulation. The key data points are the serial number, the domination and a few other pieces of information – really quite simple. Registering a bill is free and takes no more than a couple minutes. Once entered you and your kids are encouraged to write wheresgeorge.com several times along the margins of the bill(s). This is designed to peak the curiosity of others, prompt them to visit the website and register the bill themselves. Once a kind and curious individual would do so with one of your bills, both they and you would be able to instantly map out the bill’s travel time and distance among other interesting facts.

So consider spending a few moments on the site registering a few bills with your kids. Next, allow them to spend those dollars and push them out into the world. You can then check periodically to see if anyone has received the bill and entered in their own coordinates and info. By doing so you are opening the doors to possible conversations about:

1) Money (the economy and such)
2) U.S. Mints
3) Geography
4) Travel and distances
5) Latin and the Symbols on the bills

This effort clearly needs a lot of people involved to make it fun and interesting. The more people registering bills the more data to view and ponder. So check it out with your kids today!