Colleen Spiegler, 31, of Pittsburgh is one of the most active Georgers, as tracked by a scoreboard listed on the site. She also leads the social standings, snagging her husband through Where's George?

"He saw an article about me in the paper," Spiegler says. "We had dated back in the '80s but then broke up. I got married and divorced and was single when the article came out."

Spiegler, who has entered more than 22,000 bills in Where's George?, has had hits from all 50 states -- meaning her bills have traveled all over the country. In contrast, she has visited just six states in person.

She goes to the bank and withdraws $100 in $1 bills, which she uses for various purchases. It can take her up to 45 minutes to type in the serial numbers on the Web.

It can take a lot longer -- up to two years -- to get a hit on a bill. "That's a sleeper," Spiegler says, lapsing into Georger jargon.

Of course, many people are shifting from cash to plastic now, whipping out debit cards and credit cards rather than the green stuff.

But greenbacks will always be with us, Eskin predicts, even if they're in larger denominations.

"Cash is ingrained in American society," he says. "The $1 bill might get phased out in the next five or 10 years, but there's plenty of time for us to make any needed adjustments on the site."

Like other Where's George? devotees, Spiegler has adapted to a world that is moving from paper currency to plastic credit and debit cards.

Spiegler has adapted her pecquiological habits to the cash/plastic world she inhabits. She sometimes pulls out a handful of $1 bills for purchases such as clothes and groceries, but she doesn't go above $60 because it takes the clerk too long to count the money -- and it holds up the line.

"One time I ran out of money and was going to use my debit card, but I couldn't remember the PIN number," she says.

Good thing her husband was there to pick up the tab -- and bring a little reality to the world of Where's George?

Where do those dollars go?

For people who can't keep track of a buck, there's the Where's George? Web site at www.wheresgeorge.com -- a sort of underground Internet society that's open to anyone with a dollar to his name and a bit of daring in his soul.

No, the rascals at Where's George? won't help you balance a budget, but they will attempt to trace your folding money as it bounces around the St. Louis area or takes a road trip to the coast.

Hank Eskin, founder of the Web site, has developed an ingenious tracking system using the unique serial numbers found on every U.S. bill. To play, just enter a serial number into the database. If you're lucky, the bill may already have been entered by a "Georger" who has recorded when and where he or she found the bill and spent it. That's called a hit, and Georgers delight in hits; some users have entered thousands of bills into the database.

The Web site is free, fun and habit-forming and -- don't say we didn't warn you -- frowned upon by your friends in the federal government. That's because Georgers mark bills with the www.wheresgeorge.com URL to encourage participation. Some discreetly write the URL on a bill's margin with a friendly plea to "Please Track Me," while bolder Georgers custom-design their own stamps. Government agents don't care how you do it, they say marking on bills amounts to defacing U.S. currency - a federal offense that can bring a fine of up to $100 and up to six months in jail.

Nevertheless, Where's George? has evolved into a sophisticated Web site with more than 1.2 million registered users and just under 20 million bill entries. The site updates those numbers throughout the day, keeping track of statistics faster than McDonald's counts burgers sold.

Eskin of Brookline, Mass., an independent consultant who builds databases and must have time on his hands, started the Web site in 1998. He got the idea from a dollar bill on which someone had written, "Write this message on 10 other dollar bills, and good luck will come to you." The message sparked a thought - that bills could be traced by their serial numbers.

Eskin says the site's popularity is hard to explain.

"It's an Internet experience - highly interactive and participatory. It's free; I'm not marketing anything. I think it's a hobby for most people. People tell me it's addictive. They log on, enter bills and start getting hits."

The Georger mantra is EMS - Enter, Mark and Spend - and some mark and record every bill that passes through their fingers. Eskin, who is 37 and single, says Georgers are split about evenly between men and women. "The demographics are across the board - all kinds of people. There are no specific age groups or economic breakdown."

But, he acknowledges, male users tend to be more competitive, taking pleasure in making it into the top 10 lists for users and bills with most hits. Georgers are a friendly bunch who share tips in the site's chat room. Some arrange get-togethers where Georgers who are known by anonymous user names get to meet face-to-face.

"It's like a coffee club or book club, only it's for a Web site," says Eskin.

Eskin is aware of the government's charges that marking bills with the Where's George? URL is illegal. He says the practice does not make the bills unfit for circulation. The Frequently Asked Questions section of his Web site states: "Where's George? does not encourage the defacement of U.S. currency. The law defines 'illegal' defacement as defacement that renders bills unfit to be re-issued." Eskin did stop selling a Where's George? stamp, and he provides a link to the Web site of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing of the U.S. Treasury Department that discusses the defacement of currency.

"They're not happy about it - they're not thrilled about it," he acknowledges.

The bill with the most hits - 13 to date - passed through the St. Louis area last year. First entered in Dayton in July 2000, the one-dollar bill (called a George) wandered around Ohio before showing up at a QuikTrip in Wichita in February 2001. The bill made it to Marshfield, Mo., last August. On Christmas Day, a Georger from Florissant recorded it and then cast it back into the wild (spent it). The record-hit George was last seen in Crystal City in March.

The Georger from Florissant - we're withholding the scofflaw's name for his own protection because he's marked and entered more than 3,600 bills - ranks No. 8 among Georgers in Missouri and is aiming higher. The 37-year-old works in retail sales and admits to being a Georgeaholic. He says he spends at least 10 minutes daily entering bills, and he checks his standings first thing every morning. He's been playing since October 2000 when he first spotted a Georger's message.

"I had a bill come to me in some change at a store, and curiosity got to me," he says. "It's interesting to see how far the money goes. You never realize how far a dollar travels."

The trick for Georgers is to keep the bills circulating, so the strategy is to spend them in locations that offer quick turnarounds - convenience stores, for example. In effect, they play a strategic game of keep-away from banking institutions where bills can languish in a vault or, even worse, be retired.

According to the Federal Reserve, a one-dollar bill has a lifetime expectancy of only about 18 to 22 months before it becomes too worn and is pulled from circulation. If notes are defaced or mutilated, they are pulled sooner. And that's where the U.S. Secret Service comes in.

Through a quirk in bureaucracy, the same agency that guards the George who currently occupies the White House is also in charge of protecting U.S. currency from counterfeiting and from any other type of mutilation that would render it unfit for circulation. The Secret Service, an arm of the U.S. Treasury, is not amused by the messages that Georgers write or stamp on bills.

"We would discourage anyone from participating in such a scheme," says Jim Mackin, an agent assigned to public affairs in the Washington office of the Secret Service. He says violators who are caught are told to cease and desist - and usually do to avoid legal action.

Tom Canavit, assistant special agent of the St. Louis office, echoed Mackin's warning. Usually, he says, it's a matter of educating the public about the law.

For the record, Everyday staffers recently discovered two marked Georges - one was found in downtown St. Louis and the other in Richmond Heights. We cast the Georges back into the wild, but we can't tell you their complete serial numbers. Eskin monitors the Web site (we told you he has time on his hands) and would delete the bills to prevent unscrupulous Georgers from entering false hits.

And, besides, the Secret Service wouldn't like it.

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Georger terms

Capital George: A bill that has been hit in a state or national capital.

Chicken George: A registered bill that's marked or stamped on the back only, usually because the initial user is afraid to pass bills that are marked on the front.

Educated George: A bill received and/or entered at a school.

Martha: A non-Georger.

Maiden George: The first not previously entered bill entered by a user.

Natural George: A bill that is entered in the Where's George? database but not marked. Also: Ghost George.

Sleeper: A bill that takes a long time, generally more than 100 days, to get a hit.

— Encyclopædia Georgetannica