# Paper currency odds **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 7, 2001, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-currency-odds/80292 "2001-09-07T20:35:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![insider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@insider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insider)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-currency-odds/80292/1 "2001-09-07T20:35:00Z")
How great are your odds of getting the same bill back that you had used for a purchase say several weeks before? Are your odds greater with a larger bill or smaller bill? I would imagine that marking bills to track them would be against the law, but it might be interesting to see a bill come back to you several weeks later in change. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-currency-odds/80292/2 "2001-09-07T20:57:55Z")
It’s only against the law to deface currency with intent to render it unfit to be reissued: > [@](#): > > Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined not more than $100 or imprisoned not more than six months, or both Scribbling your name or a date on the bill doesn’t render it unfit - you’ve probably gotten many bills with various things scrawled on them, many by people performing exactly the experiment you’re suggesting. I don’t think drawing beards and moustaches on George Washington qualifies either. Here’s a website you might be interested in: [http://www.wheresgeorge.com](http://www.wheresgeorge.com) I suspect you are much more likely to get a bill back if you live in a smaller place - their data suggests that most bills circulate around locally in between occasional large leaps, which makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Syzygy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Syzygy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syzygy)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-currency-odds/80292/3 "2001-09-07T21:02:48Z")
Dammit, dammit, dammit! **yabob** beat me to it! I actually got one of the bills in the **Where’s George?** program. It was a five that started out in Northern Maine and ended up a year and a half later in loer Westchester County, NY. It was stamped in green ink with the website address. If only I could type faster… ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-currency-odds/80292/4 "2001-09-07T22:02:16Z")
i used to regularly mark my notes as a kid ( with my name ), mostly small currency… not one of 'em ever came back… but that’s not surprising in a country of 1 billion…