by Marisa Demarco
Daily Lobo
To an outsider, it might look strange to see 20 people hunched around tables stamping money.
But to a georger, that's productivity.
Georgers are a particular breed of curious Internet users registered at Wheresgeorge.com, a site where people can trace the routes of bills they spend.
Once a year around Balloon Fiesta time, Ron Greig holds a georger party. People from around the country come out to talk about the site, the best place to stamp a bill and what color ink gets the most attention. They also stamp tons of bills. Greig, owner of Albuquerque's Lobo Anime and Comics shop, is the No. 1 georger in the state, a high honor among fans of the site.
Greig found a bill marked with a Where's George stamp in 2003.
"I was intrigued, and I went to the site, and I was pretty much hooked from there," he said.
It works like this: People register the serial numbers of bills they've marked with the Web site's address. They spend the bill, and occasionally, someone finds it, gets curious and goes to the site where he or she can enter in the bill number and see where it's been.
Greig registered his first bill on July 24, 2003. As of Wednesday, Greig had entered 31,686 bills and has 7,176 total hits.
"At first I liked just seeing where it ends up and how quick it ends up," Greig said. "After you get a few hits and into the Web site itself, it's kind of a cool community. I went from being intrigued by where my bills went to the social aspect of the site."
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There are 547 georgers in New Mexico. Greig meets with a couple of them every other Tuesday. He created a special stamp for the Balloon Fiesta, an event he said spreads bills out pretty far. Greig's even had two hits from Japan.
Greig said two or three times a week, he sits down and enters some bills from the register into the site. Then he spends them, often at a truck stop where he buys gas.
Greig has achieved one of the most common goals of georgers: He's had hits in all 50 states. Delaware, he said, was his last state.
Scott Micheel, a manager at Comic Warehouse, was turned on to the site by Greig. He's ranked 10th in New Mexico, with 769 bills entered and 267 total hits. Micheel said he tries not to spend his bills in any particular place.
"It's not as important to get them fast and get them all over the place as it is to see where they go naturally," he said.
There's much debate among georgers, he said, about which colors are the most noticeable. Micheel uses a red stamp and a purple stamp.
He estimates he marks about five bills per week, but he sticks to the newer bills because they last longer, he said.
Greig said he primarily marks ones and fives. Bigger bills don't circulate as well and give the user a lower hit-rate percentage.
Micheel attends the gatherings and said people bring their statistics and talk about their favorite hits. They also discuss the best ways to mark bills, he said, because the federal government has specific guidelines about what's acceptable.
"You can't deface a bill," he said. "It still has to be completely readable. We mostly stamp the borders and the edges. We try to make it look nice and neat."
