Where’s George (Hamilton?)

The problem with education today…
I got one of those stamped bills telling me to go to online to log it in. Wait … something’s not right.


The problem with education today…

You’ve seen them, right? Those dollar bills with wheresgeorge.com stamped on them. If you are somehow not familiar with it, basically you’re supposed to go to that site and enter the serial number to see where that bill has been. Then you add your information about where you got it and put the bill back in circulation by spending it, hoping others will do the same.

I admit it, I think it’s fun. I’ve done it a bunch of times. Recently I got a stamped dollar bill at a bar in Key West. It’s been duly logged and will soon be spent again. And then I got another one a couple of days ago in NYC and thought wow, two in a row. Um, but … wait … something’s not right.

This is a ten dollar bill. That’s Alexander Hamilton. A friend joked that maybe the person thought it was George Hamilton, but that’s just silly. After all, this Hamilton is not nearly tan enough. Plus he’s been dead since being shot in a duel by Aaron Burr in Weehawken, NJ back in 1804.

A sadder explanation is that this person simply thought the guy on the ten dollar bill was Washington. Leaving two chilling thoughts. The person doesn’t know his own history and he obviously can’t read.

Was this an honest mistake? A weird joke? Or does it shine a light on the ever faltering educational system in America? Well, whatever the answer, this bill has gone back into circulation without being logged on the site.

See Also:
wheresgeorge.com


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One Response to “Where’s George (Hamilton?)”

  1. Hank
    08/09/10 at 2:28 pm #

    The answer is “none of the above.”

    The correct answer is that while “Where’s George?” was created, and is primarily used to track $1 bills (i.e. “Georges”), the site allows people to track ALL denominations of currency. Some people only track $2 bills, while others, only $50s and $100s. The site allows people to track whatever currency they want. And instead of having 7 different sites (wheresabe, wherealex, wheresben, etc), they are all tracked on one site: http://www.WheresGeorge.com.

    -Hank Eskin
    Creator, Where’s George?

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