Recommending a note stamp maker.. permitted?

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JamesUK
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Recommending a note stamp maker.. permitted?

Post by JamesUK »

Good morning all,

I've just purchased a self-inking "rubber stamp" to mark some of my released euro notes with the website URL.

I know there are many pros and cons for stamping / marking notes, but it's something I wanted to do. My handwriting is terrible, and it takes me a long time to write the website address on a few of the notes I get and even then you can't always read my writing! ;-)

Coming from a BookCrossing background where I used to print all my own sticky labels for books with their BCID numbers on, I really wanted to find a cheap ink stamp I could use.

I've been so impressed with the one I've just ordered and received that I wanted to share it with the forum so that others could buy one too if they wanted.

I've found other threads on note stamping such as viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1691 but I really want to make sure it's OK to post a recommendation for a specific company, along with photographs and price details here on the forum. I should add I have no direct connection with this company, I'm just a very satisfied customer!), but I just think they might be exactly what other forum users who want a note stamp are looking for.

Any thoughts? Any particular forum board I should use for this, if there are no objections?

Regards

James
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Montgomery Burns
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Re: Recommending a note stamp maker.. permitted?

Post by Montgomery Burns »

Well, as long as you started this thread, why not continue here :) I don't think you're breaking any rules.

Other threads to consider:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5027
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11761

Neither has seen any action in a long time, but I'd consider one of those two as the "official" thread to discuss stamps and marking. The one you mentioned is better left solely for discussing seen markings and posting pictures, I would leave any other form of discussion out of it.
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lmviterbo
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Re: Recommending a note stamp maker.. permitted?

Post by lmviterbo »

As kind of a summary of what has been discussed, here are some considerations for all those who are using or plan to use EuroBillTracker stamps:
  • Stamped notes lose their circulation time much faster: if they reach a central bank, which is common practice within the circulation cycle, they will be destroyed.
  • The amount of new active EBTors due to a stamp is most likely negligible: I have never heard of anyone who found EBT because of a stamp on a note, and then liked it and stayed.
  • Many EBTors (most?) consider hits with stamped notes less interesting (but there's no Hit Interestingness Score, so this ultimately is up to you).
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Montgomery Burns
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Re: Recommending a note stamp maker.. permitted?

Post by Montgomery Burns »

I'm not vehemently against marking bills, but it does seem like a waste of time. I've "urled" about 160 notes as of this date - either by stamp or by "hand" - and they have produced 1 hit and 0 new users. It was with an existing (inactive) member who must have seen the stamp and decided to register that one bill (I paid attention to that person for a brief while afterwards and it seems he/she was not too keen on becoming a regular again). Others are either not noticing the URL or ignoring it. I avoid stamping over any character and security feature of a note, which means the darker part of a note will get the stamp. I currently have a black ink stamp, I don't think it's the most visible on the darker portions of fivers (my most marked denom.) and twenty-notes. It's good on tenners and fifties (I've marked very few of the latter).
Last edited by Montgomery Burns on Thu Nov 25, 2021 1:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
JamesUK
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Re: Recommending a note stamp maker.. permitted?

Post by JamesUK »

Thank you for those interesting responses.

From my own experience, I found "Where's George?" from a note stamped with the website, and had read that a lot of other people who then became members had got a stamped note which piqued their curiosity and made them visit the site.

I actually only found the EBT site by looking at the Where's George Wikipedia page.

I think I'll just leave writing a review / recommendation for now, given the responses.

**[EDIT]** - If anyone was thinking of buying / making their own EBT stamp, please feel free to PM me and I can give you all my own findings / information / tests and experiments I tried ( ! ) etc. to help you make a decision.

Regards

James
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avij
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Re: Recommending a note stamp maker.. permitted?

Post by avij »

I bought a generic stamp that allows me to put the characters in any order I want (ie. movable type). This also allows me to change the text myself if I ever feel like it. It was quite cheap, I don't remember where I bought it. Some Finnish company anyway. I'm certain such generic stamps are available in every country.

As others have mentioned, stamping notes significantly reduces their lifetime in circulation, because the central banks and others will shred any note that has markings. I have only stamped notes that were already in poor condition -- those notes would be shredded anyway due to their condition.

My stamp says "Congratulations, you've found a note that is being tracked, http://sete.li" (in Finnish; "seteli" is banknote in Finnish). I think this is "catchier" than just "Register this note on eurobilltracker.com". A fairly significant portion of those notes that I've stamped have been entered again. This is in contrast to some other users' experiences. I'd like to attribute this difference to the catchier text that I'm using. But as others have mentioned, nearly all those users have entered only that one note and nothing else. Therefore I think there's little benefit in stamping the notes, taking into consideration the reduced lifetime of stamped notes. I have not stamped any notes in recent years.
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