For years and years, I was a devoted user of Where’s George. I georged pretty much every bill I could, and I tried to keep them separate in my change so I knew which bill was which for date entry since I liked to enter the venue from which I received it in the notes. It was fun, but eventually the drag of the scut work wore me down. That, and living in small town South Carolina meant that my hit percentage went way down and it got less fun.
I did revive it some for this trip to San Francisco that I’m currently on. Because of the tech hipster density, bills I’ve let go in the bay area have a hit ratio approaching 50%. I georged every bill in my wallet before we left. A few went into the Charlotte airport and I’ve taken in new change since. I’m guessing now that every original bill I brought with me is now circulating and its all new bills now.
Coincidentally as I was doing all this, I got a mind-blowing hit yesterday. This is one of the bills I entered and stamped very early in my career as a georger. It was hit this week, 7 years and 51 days after I first put it in the system. It’s hard to imagine a $1 circulating that long, since compared to other denominations they tend to get used hard and have short lives.
I don’t imagine I’m going back to entering every bill that passes through my hands again, but now and then it is fun to return to this and prime the pump a little more.