# A "Holy Crap" Where'sGeorge Moment **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 3, 2011, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197 "2011-06-03T14:52:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/1 "2011-06-03T14:52:39Z")
I went out to pub triva night on Monday, and in the change I received from one of my beers, I noticed a “Where’s George” stamp on one of the bills (in case you don’t know, [www.wheresgeorge.com](http://www.wheresgeorge.com) allows you to track where money has traveled). Last night I [entered the bill](http://www.wheresgeorge.com/report.php?key=549f1204a8bcb93edf41e733018fc828a072897c2ba1d9e8) and was amused to see that the previous entry was from the town I lived in up until about a year ago. Then I read the note on the previous entry – holy crap…that was _my_ entry! I wrote that last one too! Over a year and a half ago, and a 40-mile drive away, but that was my fricking entry. Would there even be a way to calculate the odds of this happening? I’m sure it happens now and then where someone receives the same bill more than once, but naturally they just don’t realize it. But for a _specific_ bill like this, and over a distance like that…wow…gotta be astronomical. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/2 "2011-06-03T15:02:59Z")
No offense, but … people actually do this? ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/3 "2011-06-03T15:06:14Z")
Yeah…I don’t stamp my own, but when I come across one with a stamp, I’ll usually put it in my pocket (rather than in my wallet) and take a look at where its been. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/4 "2011-06-03T15:10:55Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > No offense, but … people actually do this? I used to do it a lot more when I was sending dollar bills out as postage money to QSL cards back for ham radio contacts. Even then the bills reappeared very rarely. Still have my stamp though. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/5 "2011-06-03T17:34:24Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > No offense, but … people actually do this? Yep! Its just a fun little thing, and takes no time. You only get a few responses back, but its interesting to see how a bill has traveled over a 2 year period or so. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/6 "2011-06-03T17:46:55Z")
That is completely freaky. Reminds me of a vaguely similar incident when I was living in the States. I discovered there was a place a couple of hours away that sold English foodstuffs and I was craving Marmite, so I drove there at the weekend. As I was buying my teabags etc. I noticed something on the wall that looked familiar. It was a pub sign that said “The Saracen’s Head”. Then I looked closer, and at the brewery stamp, and realised that it was _the_ pub sign from the pub in my town in England where I used to drink when I was a teenager. The pub had closed down a few years before and I guess the sign must have ended up at auction and found its way to a store in Connecticut. I was completely freaked out. ETA: [in fact this very sign](http://www.thamehistory.net/images/SaracensHeadCirca1988.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Goggles03](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@Goggles03](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goggles03)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/7 "2011-07-27T21:47:56Z")
Somebody eats “Marmite?” ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/8 "2011-07-27T21:59:12Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > No offense, but … people actually do this? Do what? Put the bill in Wheresgeorge and mark it? Why not? Actually, I’m surprised how few people know about this and/or enter a bill that already has a stamp on it. I’m rated #126 in my state with a George score, yet I only mark a few bills a week, and only one in a hundred ever gets re-entered. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/9 "2011-07-27T22:16:27Z")
Does anyone remember an episode of “That’s Incredible” back in the early eighties? A girl in Germany got a 5 dollar American bill in the mail from her uncle in the States. He had written in German Happy Birthday to (her name) from his name. She cashed it in for local currency. A few years later she was visiting the USA and got the same 5 dollar bill back in change. She came on the show and showed the bill. It seemed pretty “Incredible” then. Now I am not sure it is even possible. (I can’t believe I even remember this show) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/10 "2011-07-27T22:39:07Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > No offense, but … people actually do this? Enter my own currency? No way. I do enter stamped bills that I get in change though. I have gotten maybe five or six in my life but it’s been years since I have seen one. I usually enter the other bills in my wallet when I enter the one with the stamp. When I did a lot of business travel, I would wait to spend it until I was far from where I got it. Come to think of it, I rarely use cash anymore. That explains why I haven’t seen one in so long. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/11 "2011-07-28T02:11:32Z")
It happens. I have more than 20,000 bills entered, and have received a few dozen back. Only one, however, very far away - it was entered in Visalia, CA, and I got it back from a bank in San Francisco, about 4 hours away. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/12 "2011-07-28T07:25:33Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > It happens. I have more than 20,000 bills entered, and have received a few dozen back. Only one, however, very far away - it was entered in Visalia, CA, and I got it back from a bank in San Francisco, about 4 hours away. > > Joe 20,000 bills?!?!? Well, the name now makes a LOT more sense. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/13 "2011-07-28T08:38:01Z")
> [@Tristan](#): > > 20,000 bills?!?!? > > Well, the name now makes a LOT more sense. 😃 22,500, as of right now, and I’m probably not in the top 500 users based on number of bills entered. I think three people have broken a million - at least one is a business owner who marks every bill he gives out in change. As a whole, the sitea has seen almost 200 million bills entered, over a billion dollars worth… Joe ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-holy-crap-wheresgeorge-moment/584197/14 "2011-07-28T12:32:52Z")
> [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](#): > > Does anyone remember an episode of “That’s Incredible” back in the early eighties? I sure do…in fact, that story was the first thing that popped into my mind when I got that bill again.