Note in a Bottle

I took my change and put it in my pocket. A few days later I was in line for a cup of coffee when I noticed a dollar bill. Someone has stamp it with red ink: www.wheresgeorge.com. I put the bill in my right front pocket so I wouldn't spend it.

"Where's George" is a game that enables players to mark a bill with the website, spend the bill and watch it's movement around the world. It's rare that I receive a marked bill but when I do I try to log it's location. I carried the bill for a week or two waiting for a slow day at work which finally came today.

The bill is a one dollar, 2003 series, which started in Campbell, California on July 12, 2007. It was started by a guy named Ed who's greeting is "Hello from the Bankrupt state of KaliFornia". Ed has marked 1,674 bills and 95 of them have been logged by people like me.

I don't play "Where's George" but Julie and I do have a travel bug that has traveled 5738 miles. At present it's in New York on Long Island. I'll have to write about that game sometime.

In the past -- and perhaps today also -- people have played similar games by putting notes in bottles or tying them to helium-filled balloons. Travel bugs and marked bills are modern versions of the same game.