EuroBillTracker

Hello, all. I'm an American university student who tracks his US currency on WheresGeorge.com.

I am going to be studying in Rome for three months starting on 1 February, so of course I am looking forward to tracking some euros when I am in Italy. And so I have a question: it is very common for WheresGeorge users to mark their bills in a distinctive way—custom stamps, colorful stamps with "Track this bill - WheresGeorge.com" on it, that sort of thing. Many people in the US think it is illegal to "deface" bills that way, and often us "Georgers" have to explain that it isn't.

Is it legal to mark currency in the EU? How do EuroBillTrackers mark their bills to signal to other EBT users that the bill is to be tracked? Do you write the URL on the bill? If so, where? Does one make an effort to avoid marking a specific area of the bill (for example, security features)?

I don't see nearly as much discussion of marking bills as there is on the WheresGeorge forums.

Thank you very much for any feedback!

Hey,

Welcome at Eurobilltracker!

If you read through the faq of our website, you will find this page where you question is answered.

As an eurobilltracker of the first hour my advice is not to mark bills.

I always understood that marked euro bills are taken out of circulation way faster than marked dollar bills in the US. But you might consider writing the URL on a few (low denomination) notes in the way described in the link above.

By the way, Rome is not the best place in the Eurozone to get hits.

R/J wrote:I always understood that marked euro bills are taken out of circulation way faster than marked dollar bills in the US. But you might consider writing the URL on a few (low denomination) notes in the way described in the link above.

By the way, Rome is not the best place in the Eurozone to get hits.

http://nl.eurobilltracker.eu/profile/?user=22166

wjschrenk wrote: I don't see nearly as much discussion of marking bills as there is on the WheresGeorge forums.

Maybe, (because marking bills is just not so common as it is on WG), but there are some threads about the topic where most of the issues have been discussed already, like http://www.eurobilltrackerforum.com/vie ... rk#p180702 or, even better http://www.eurobilltrackerforum.com/vie ... f=5&t=9282 (if only this thread had a more precise subject, people might even find it... )

In a nutshell: Marking bills does not seem to increase your hit chances dramatically so marking should be limited to those notes either already marked or otherwise unfit for circulation.

De-Ker wrote:

R/J wrote:I always understood that marked euro bills are taken out of circulation way faster than marked dollar bills in the US. But you might consider writing the URL on a few (low denomination) notes in the way described in the link above.

By the way, Rome is not the best place in the Eurozone to get hits.

http://nl.eurobilltracker.eu/profile/?user=22166

Interesting hits : 697
Notes entered : 752 000

R/J wrote:Interesting hits : 697
Notes entered : 752 000

R/J wrote:Rome is not the best place in the Eurozone to get hits.

... with other users than Pincopallino Clan
but it is a good place to get hits, I think

or

R/J wrote:Rome is not the best place in the Eurozone to get hits.

it's only the second best place after Helsinki

Well, Rome has a hit ratio of 1:1013. Not particularly great but at least a little better than Italy overall (1:1076).

So let's just hope that wjschrenk will help to improve Rome's hit ratio.

Edit: Oh, and don't forget to visit Vatican City while you're staying in Rome!

okay...
Rome has 949 146 entered notes, so around 200 000 notes from other users than PC
and Rome has 30 hits Rome-Rome
so the hits with PC do not add much to the hit ratio, and it stays a bad hit ratio

Thanks to everyone for their replies!

I will take them all into account when I have a few euros to spend. Given that abysmal rate of ~1:1000 I'm glad to report I will have the opportunity to travel to other places in the Eurozone besides Italy. I would be disappointed if I only got one or two hits in three months! (Since my WheresGeorge hit rate is nearly 7%, and increasing.)

To cheer you up (though only a bit): For 2009 the hit ratio in Rome is 22 285/35 (about 600).

Welcome to EBT from an Italian user! In Rome you just need to be lucky... everyone is going to Rome, so you can get notes from everywhere and even your notes will go everywhere.
As advice, writings and stamps usually reduces life of notes in europe, maybe if you have a very discrete one you can try!!!

Cheers by one had an hit in WG too (thanx to a stamp... of course...)

Today I received a note in Meer with URL on it.
But it wasn't a hit, it's the second time that this happens to me...
And I'm not the only one with this experience .....
Is there a reason for this?
http://nl.eurobilltracker.com/notes/?id=65676696" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fons wrote:Today I received a note in Meer with URL on it.
But it wasn't a hit, it's the second time that this happens to me...
And I'm not the only one with this experience .....
Is there a reason for this?
http://nl.eurobilltracker.com/notes/?id=65676696" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

pics or it didn't happen

Fons wrote:Today I received a note in Meer with URL on it.
But it wasn't a hit, it's the second time that this happens to me...
And I'm not the only one with this experience .....
Is there a reason for this?
http://nl.eurobilltracker.com/notes/?id=65676696" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maybe is it a note deleted with the faker's account ?