Saturday, June 30, 2007

Three new bills to look at

I’ve got three new bills to post pictures of, all of which involve text.


The first one is fairly obvious. It just reads, "Alex" in big blue letters. Not much of a mystery there. The question is as to whether it’s a person who wants to get their name out there (or if they’re expecting to get their bills back or something) or if there’s some bigger meaning to it.

Some things, like the bank marking in my previous post, I can figure out. This is some sort of standard procedure, or at least the byproduct of it. With a person’s name, it’s not as clear. There are so many people named Alex out there that the real mystery is why they do it.

This one, I’m still trying to figure out. Does it say Billarejo? Google has some hits on it, but Alta Vista can’t translate it. I’m guessing that it’s a name. It does look like a signature. That’s really the only thing I can think of. Maybe this Billarejo person knows Alex. Maybe the two of them should get together. I have to wonder if the people that put their names on bills know each other.

At least that one was somewhat legible. This one is blue letters enclosed by a black line. It could be zoclath or zoclatli or something like that. It’s hard to tell. The first letter might even be the number 3, like 30 clatli. This is one of those things that I’d appreciate some comments on.

In other news, I got a hit in Paris, France. The sentence structure isn’t great, but I get the impression that the bill is going to visit Mickey Mouse. And it came from such humble beginnings…

I’ve actually made the top fifty on Where’s George in the state based on George Score. (For those wondering, it’s derived from a formula based on hits, bills entered and the number of days since your last activity.) Sitewide, I’m hovering around 1,000th place.

If I see any new bills or move up in place a lot, I’ll let you know.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Good news and bad news

I’ve had a major good event and a major bad event in the past few days.

First, the good news. The other day, I hit a bill from Wattsburg Gary, the top user on Where’s George. I’m surprised that it hasn’t happened sooner, considering that he’s entered over a half a million bills. I got it from the casino and put it into the drawer at work. I wonder if I’ll get a hit on it.

As for the bad news, I was robbed at gunpoint last night. I had just been to the casino to get my bills into circulation and had to get a whole new set of singles. I lost $200 in singles and $60 in twos. I may have to rethink my strategy here. I’m not so sure that it’s worth carrying that kind of cash.

The worst part is that none of it was entered or marked. There’s no way to track it, but the guy that did it is now carrying a lot of twos. Fortunately, I got out of it alive and unhurt. My wallet wasn’t taken, but my parents have to cancel a lot of stuff. I’m just happy no one was hurt.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

More bills back

I went to the casino today and it happened again. I got two of my bills back. When I looked them up on my cell phone, I saw that they had been entered in late February of this year. I put them back into the machine. I’m hoping that it won’t be another four months before someone gets them and takes them home. I’m wondering if I’ve reached a saturation point. It might be time to move on to fives and tens.


I found another interesting marking on a bill. A Google search reveals First Victoria National Bank as a likely suspect. I’m guessing that that’s where the stamp came from, considering that it’s not unusual for banks to stamp a strap of bills, leaving some mark on the top of the bill. The odd thing is that the stamp doesn’t appear to be part of a larger stamp. I’m wondering if someone just had a stamp that the had to use or if this was a common procedure.

In other news, my brother and sister-in-law got mentioned in a New York Times Article. (My brother is Brice Kuhl in case you wanted to skip to where my brother was quoted…) It looks like I’m the only one of the three brothers not to have a newspaper article about them. There’s still plenty of time, though.