Currency bill tracking
Encyclopedia
Currency bill tracking is the process (usually facilitated by any one of a number of websites set up for the purpose) of tracking the movements of banknote
s, similar to how ornithologists
track migrations of birds by ringing
them. Currency bill tracking sites can track currency among the users of that website. A user may register a bill by entering its serial number, and if someone else has already registered the bill, then the "route" of the bill can be displayed.
Some bill tracking sites encourage marking before spending, whereas others do not. This usually depends on the laws of the country issuing the currency.
The most popular currencies for currencies tracking are the Euro
, the United States Dollar
(USD), and the Canadian Dollar
(CND).
because multiple countries having adopted the Euro, this easily leads to competetion between trackers in different countries; in the United States cometetion plays out at the state or county level; and in Canada, at the provincial level.
Canada, once a thriving bill tracking country, has been hit hard by the introduction of cotton bills and later polymer bills
, making currency tracking through marking bills nearly impossible. This trend is causing growing concern throughout currency tracking sites around the world, already having desimated New Zealand and Vietnam. In Australia, the country with the longest exposure to polymer, attempts were made in 2006 to form The Money Tracker
which tracks Australian Dollars
without marking of any kind. If successful, it could be huge breakthrough to the polymer problem, meaning adjustment could be made to existing tracking sites to allow the tracking of polymer banknotes. If a breakthrough is not made, it could mean the collapse of currency tracking as a result of the polymer problem.
Marking bills in Canada with ink or rubber stamp is legal. In the United States, marking is illegal if intended to deface the bill; however, this is rarely enforced and only a fine is faced, if convicted. Marking is widespread in both countries. In the Eurozone marking is not universal, and varies by region.
.
A similar scheme to currency bill tracking – and said to be inspired by it – is BookCrossing
, which tracks the movement of secondhand books which are marked and then "released into the wild".
Banknote
A banknote is a kind of negotiable instrument, a promissory note made by a bank payable to the bearer on demand, used as money, and in many jurisdictions is legal tender. In addition to coins, banknotes make up the cash or bearer forms of all modern fiat money...
s, similar to how ornithologists
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
track migrations of birds by ringing
Bird ringing
Bird ringing or bird banding is a technique used in the study of wild birds, by attaching a small, individually numbered, metal or plastic tag to their legs or wings, so that various aspects of the bird's life can be studied by the ability to re-find the same individual later...
them. Currency bill tracking sites can track currency among the users of that website. A user may register a bill by entering its serial number, and if someone else has already registered the bill, then the "route" of the bill can be displayed.
Some bill tracking sites encourage marking before spending, whereas others do not. This usually depends on the laws of the country issuing the currency.
The most popular currencies for currencies tracking are the Euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
, the United States Dollar
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
(USD), and the Canadian Dollar
Canadian dollar
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
(CND).
Background
Originally beginning in the United States in the mid-1990's, the phenomenon or hobby of currency tracking quickly spread first to Canada and then beyond. Especially with the Euro bill tracking, trackers have taken on a much more competetive nature and have form communities within their respective sites. Many successful sites incorperate some sort of social media, either through site specific unique techniques, or through outside popular social media sites. In the EurozoneEurozone
The eurozone , officially called the euro area, is an economic and monetary union of seventeen European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender...
because multiple countries having adopted the Euro, this easily leads to competetion between trackers in different countries; in the United States cometetion plays out at the state or county level; and in Canada, at the provincial level.
Canada, once a thriving bill tracking country, has been hit hard by the introduction of cotton bills and later polymer bills
Polymer banknote
Polymer banknotes were developed by the Reserve Bank of Australia , Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and The University of Melbourne and were first issued as currency in Australia in 1988. These banknotes are made from the polymer biaxially-oriented polypropylene ...
, making currency tracking through marking bills nearly impossible. This trend is causing growing concern throughout currency tracking sites around the world, already having desimated New Zealand and Vietnam. In Australia, the country with the longest exposure to polymer, attempts were made in 2006 to form The Money Tracker
The Money Tracker
The Money Tracker or www.moneytracker.com.au is a Currency bill tracking site that tracks Australian banknotes as they circulate around Australia...
which tracks Australian Dollars
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
without marking of any kind. If successful, it could be huge breakthrough to the polymer problem, meaning adjustment could be made to existing tracking sites to allow the tracking of polymer banknotes. If a breakthrough is not made, it could mean the collapse of currency tracking as a result of the polymer problem.
Marking bills in Canada with ink or rubber stamp is legal. In the United States, marking is illegal if intended to deface the bill; however, this is rarely enforced and only a fine is faced, if convicted. Marking is widespread in both countries. In the Eurozone marking is not universal, and varies by region.
Popular currency bill tracking websites
Some of the most popular websites for bill tracking include the following:United States and Canada
- Where's George?Where's George?Where's George? is a website that tracks the natural geographic circulation of American paper money. Its popularity has led to the establishment of a number of other currency tracking websites , sites that track other objects—such as used books—and it has been used in at least one research paper to...
, started in December 1998, was the first site to start a currency bill tracking project and remains the most popular of the sites, with nearly $1 billion worth of notes entered as of December 2010. It was created by Hank Eskin to track US$. The site has led to the creation of many other bill tracking sites.
- Where's Willy?Where's Willy?Where's Willy? is a website that tracks Canadian paper money — most commonly five dollar bills, but also higher denominations. "Where's Willy" is free, supported by users who pay a fee for extra features...
for CADCanadian dollarThe Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
(Canada). Despite the website starting up two years after Canadian Money Tracker, it is the most popular of the Canadian currency tracking sites.
- Where Have I Been? for CADCanadian dollarThe Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
and US$
- TrackDollar for US$
- Canadian Money Tracker, started in 1999, for CADCanadian dollarThe Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
(Canada)
Euro
- EuroBillTrackerEuroBillTrackerEuroBillTracker is a website designed for tracking euro banknotes. It was inspired by the U.S. currency tracking website Where's George?.- Characteristics :...
was started on January 1, 2002 to track euro banknotesEuro banknotesEuro banknotes are the banknotes of the euro, the currency of the eurozone and have been in circulation since 2002. They are issued by the national central banks of the euro area or the European Central Bank...
. It is the largest of the euro tracking sites.
- EuroTracer, the second-largest euro-tracking site, also studies the systems of serial numbers and printer codes of euro banknotes and the distribution of euro coinsEuro coinsThere are eight euro coin denominations, ranging from one cent to two euros . The coins first came into use in 2002. They have a common reverse, portraying a map of Europe, but each country in the eurozone has its own design on the obverse, which means that each coin has a variety of different...
with their different national faces.
- FollowMyEuro is the third site for tracking Euro's.
- myEurobill, tracking euro banknotesEuro banknotesEuro banknotes are the banknotes of the euro, the currency of the eurozone and have been in circulation since 2002. They are issued by the national central banks of the euro area or the European Central Bank...
using Google maps interface. Developed with Ruby on RailsRuby on RailsRuby on Rails, often shortened to Rails or RoR, is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language.-History:...
.
Other
- Where's Lizzy, Find Lizzy, Cash Path and Fiver Finder track banknotes of the pound sterling. The first British currency tracking site, DoshtrackerDoshTracker-History:DoshTracker was a Web site that allowed Bank of England notes to be tracked around the country. Its concept was based on Where's George?, which follows American currency, and in the same way it allowed users to enter the serial number on notes that they owned and see where it had been.Dosh...
, is no longer in operation.
- CashFollow for Swiss francSwiss francThe franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen , it is in wide daily use there...
.
- SEK-Tracker tracks Swedish kronaSwedish kronaThe krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
s since 2004 - In 1999, Market research company Cint hosted a now defunct tracking service for 20 SEK notes, named after Selma LagerlöfSelma LagerlöfSelma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was a Swedish author. She was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and most widely known for her children's book Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige ....
, whose portrait appears on the obverse.
- Penzkoveto.hu tracks Hungarian ForintHungarian forintThe forint is the currency of Hungary. It is divided into 100 fillér, although fillér coins are no longer in circulation. The introduction of the forint on 1 August 1946 was a crucial step of the post-WWII stabilization of the Hungarian economy, and the currency remained relatively stable until...
s
- Moja-Lova tracking Croatian kunaCroatian kunaThe kuna is the currency of Croatia since 1994 . It is subdivided into 100 lipa. The kuna is issued by the Croatian National Bank and the coins are minted by the Croatian Monetary Institute....
s using Google maps interface. Developed with Google Web ToolkitGoogle Web ToolkitGoogle Web Toolkit is an open source set of tools that allows web developers to create and maintain complex JavaScript front-end applications in Java. Other than a few native libraries, everything is Java source that can be built on any supported platform with the included GWT Ant build files...
and PHPPHPPHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
.
Elsewhere
- The Money TrackerThe Money TrackerThe Money Tracker or www.moneytracker.com.au is a Currency bill tracking site that tracks Australian banknotes as they circulate around Australia...
started in 2006 for tracking Australian DollarsAustralian dollarThe Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
, and uniquely tracks banknotes using an interactive map of Australia
- Where's my Bucks started tracking South African randSouth African randThe rand is the currency of South Africa. It takes its name from the Witwatersrand , the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built and where most of South Africa's gold deposits were found. The rand has the symbol "R" and is subdivided into 100 cents, symbol "c"...
s in 2006
- Where's Renminbi tracks Chinese Renminbi (or Yuan) in China
- ontabenito tracks the MexicanMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
pesoMexican pesoThe peso is the currency of Mexico. Modern peso and dollar currencies have a common origin in the 15th–19th century Spanish dollar, most continuing to use its sign, "$". The Mexican peso is the 12th most traded currency in the world, the third most traded in the Americas, and by far the most...
- Cupura.Ru, roobex.ru, flitter.ru tracks Russia'sRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
rubleRubleThe ruble or rouble is a unit of currency. Currently, the currency units of Belarus, Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria, and, in the past, the currency units of several other countries, notably countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union, are named rubles, though they all are...
s since May, 2009
- Currency Path – Track all international currency notes
India
- TrackGandhi tracks Indian RupeeIndian rupeeThe Indian rupee is the official currency of the Republic of India. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India....
, started in IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in 2007
- Where's Gandhi for [Indian Rupees | INR/Rs. ₹], New currency tracking project started for Indian Rupee. Currently in Alpha Phase.
In popular culture
The act of tracking a $20 bill was the binding theme between various stories in the film Twenty BucksTwenty Bucks
Twenty Bucks is a 1993 film that follows the travels of a $20 bill from a crisp new note from the ATM in downtown Minneapolis through various transactions and incidents from person to person through the city....
.
A similar scheme to currency bill tracking – and said to be inspired by it – is BookCrossing
BookCrossing
BookCrossing is defined as "the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise." The term is derived from bookcrossing.com, a free online book club which began in order to encourage the practice, aiming to "make the whole world a library."The...
, which tracks the movement of secondhand books which are marked and then "released into the wild".