I think wheresgeorge.com, the information it gathers and disseminates and discussions thereof are indeed appropriate topics under the "Paper Money" rubic.
I concur.... that's why I started it there. The only thing that site deals with is paper notes, and therefore, it belongs in the paper section.
Nobody has explained to me the numismatic significance of where uncollected bills damaged by markings have traveled. I'll leave this thread open, for now, awaiting such explanation.
Roy: from Dictionary.com: nu·mis·mat·ics n. (used with a sing. verb) The study or collection of money, coins, and often medals. Tracking of bills on this site is not only a study of money - particularly of the travel of money from place to place and the ability of paper notes to remain in circulation for extended periods of time, which is actually facinating - it is also a collection tool. I have, myself, collected over $4000 face in notes over three years, and have a grand collection of the various serial numbers I have encountered during such time. The most interesting one has been H26666617B on a Series 2003 A $1 note that I received in circulation about 1.5 weeks ago. As you are no doubt well aware, collecting is not only the holding onto of tangible items, but the obtaining of items and passing them on, while retaining a part of them for oneself. The record of having had a note, recorded it, and then kept up on its progress is in itself an act of collecting that note. This is why I believe the use of www.wheresgeorge.com is of numismatic significance. I would once more encourage you to allow those of us who use that site to continue posting on our progresses there. Thanks, AJM
I'm not too sure why one cannot consider the study of where money or coins travelled or kept by someone as "un-numismatic". If you looked at major coin collections, especially some high graded coins, they are sometimes labelled as "ex-someone's collection". Some collectors might go after someone's collection just because they are a fan of that person or because of the interesting story behind it. I don't quite see why this cannot be applied to banknotes though.
I think wheresgeorge.com provides a great source of information about circulation patterns, as well as people's perceptions and experiences of money. Certainly it's not about "collecting" currency, but I didn't know the study of money, and discussions thereof, was limited only to collecting it. OTOH, I don't wish to be pedantic or a bad guest here, so I'll defer to the operators on this matter.
BTW, I never mark a bill with a "where's George" stamp, but I do report every bill I get that is so marked.
Regardless of whether my bills from change/the bank are marked or not, I enter them, and then release them! You should always enter all of your bills.... it makes it that much more fun when one of us other WG users enters it thinking we'll get the first entry and it turns out to be from halfway across the country or something! ~AJ
A stamped dollar is in itself a collectable - exonumia in the case of coins, I assume that term may apply to bills also. I have a couple WG dollars, and a few others with various political or other stampings. I also make many such things myself. Maybe someday I will post a few. I have a project (not too active at the moment) where I get historical figures to sign some dollar bills, then I print their name in the margin to help identify the signature, and I spend them. I also took a couple dozen dollar bills on a recent trip to Poland where I visited the Auschwitz concentration camp. I stamped "This dollar was at Auschwitz" on the back of the bills. It is just my way to get people thinking about history, etc. I can't necessarily say that they are worth any premium (except for some of the signed bills), but they are certainly collectable to some people.
Wow.... who have you gotten to sign your bills? Also, where can I move to find some of the ones you've released into circulation?! That's an awesome project!
For those of us that dont mind writing on our bills, we should put our CT usernames and see if other members find them in commerce. On $2 bills, I like to wirte, "Spend me, I'm not rare" on them before setting them free.
What is more ironic is how people find chopmarked coins collectable. If those are collectable, why such "chopmarks" on banknotes not collectable? I believe people collect such coins because they tell stories of what merchants they have been through. Most certainly cities, countries etc would be interesting to know if possible.
Well, my first was Max Schmeling, German boxer who beat Joe Louis and was World Heavywieght Champion in the 1930s. I've also had bills signed by Robert Ballard (discovered the Titanic), some old movie and TV stars (Rose Marie of "The Dick Van Dyke show", Larry Storch from "F Troop", Artie Johnson from "Laugh In", Patricia Neal), some old baseball stars (Buck O'Neil from the Negro Leagues Bobby Doerr from the Boston Red Sox and Baseball Hall of Fame), Charles Lindberg (not the pilot) who was one of the soldiers who raised the U.S. flag in Iwo Jima in WWII, and some Congressional Medal of Honor winners. Also there were some whose name is not familiar but whose accomplishments are, such as early NASA people, the British engineer who came up with the idea that saved the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Itay from falling over, and the guy who designed the 50-star Amercian flag after Alaska and Hawaii were made states. I was living in Germany when I staretd this, so the dollars made their way into circulation when I was home in the Boston area on vacation or when I paid for small eBay purchases by mail (sent to all parts of the US). I have four or five sets of signed bills waiting to be completed by stamping the celebrity's name in the margin (I usually get anywhere from 4 to 8 bills signed by each person), and then those will be spent. I save one of each for myself and spend the rest, and somewhere I do have one last Schmeling to spend. That is my sentimental favorite, as he was in his late 90s when he signed them and he passed away a few years ago. That will be a nice memento for whoever gets it in change and recognizes the name. I suppose I could sell it on eBay at this point, but I absolutely refuse to sell or profit from these as they were signed as a favor by the celebrity with the understanding that I would spend them. Not sure where they end up, but the idea was that maybe someone would take a moment to learn something about the person who signed, or maybe a kid would take it to school for show and tell and the others could learn something new.
Wow.... that's an awesome idea! I'd love to have one signed by the guy who created the 50-star flag (I'm a political science major and politics junkie)! Keep up the good work! Maybe I'll try doing that too.... if I can find anyone famous! I think that would make a great CT contest (hint, hint.... look for me doing one later)! AJM
By the way, I entered about $2,500 in new bills today, bringing my WG stats to: 313 Bills Worth $6,765.00 Hits: 3 Hit rate .96% George Score: 378.34 Rank overall: 12,883/47,626 AZ Rank: 168/1909 Average bill denomination: $21.61 AJM
I just finished entering $1,880 in bills today, 61 of them to be exact - all $10s, $20s, $50s, and $100s. That puts me up over $11,000 in bills entered total, and moves me up to 161st rank in Arizona. I also decided to calculate some statistics from what I found: Average bill amount entered (all time): $23.03 Average bill amount entered (since 8/1): $30.82 From www.coolnumbers.com: Coolest number entered: $20 note, S/N CL24481148D at 97.7% cool Least cool number entered: $20 note, S/N AF16915850D at 15.0% cool Average UCI% of the 61 notes: 65.14% cool 1 Prime number entered (28868773) 2 Hall of Fame qualifying numbers entered 7 notes with UCI% above 90.0% 15 notes with UCI% under 50.0% I think I'm going to keep track of these stats from now on and see how high I can get my average UCI% to go. AJM
Newest Stats: Bills entered today: 99 totalling $2,181.00 Bills entered total: 569 totalling $13,189.00 George Score: 390.50 US Rank: 12,689 AZ Rank: 161 Coolnumbers Stats: Of the 99 bills I entered today: Coolest number entered: $50 note, S/N CB21047365A (8 unique numbers, 8 sequential numbers) at 97.3% cool Least Cool number entered: $20 note, S/N EB25797035D at 18.5% cool Average UCI of the 99 notes: 66.71% cool 6 Prime numbers entered 7 Hall of Fame qualifying numbers entered 10 notes with UCI% above 90.0% 16 notes with UCI% under 50.0% Total average UCI% (past 160 notes): 65.93%
