Where’s Willy? is Canada’s Currency Tracker website. Want to know where your Five dollar bill is going? Just enter the bill Serial Number and your Postal Code and away you go!

So where did this site come from? Where’s Willy? was created in 2001 response to the very popular U.S. version Where’s George? which launched in 1998. I heard about the US site back in High School watching the news (I think it was CNN) It seemed like a cool idea, a place to track where your money has been and where it is going. Some US bills have traveled from one side of the country to the other side, which is pretty cool! 

Of course, many Canadians had heard about the US-based site and wanted to get a Canadian version up. So on February 20th, 2001, Hank Eskin (who conceived and developed the Where’s George? site) launched Where’s Willy? – named after Sir Wilfrid Laurier – The first French Canadian Prime Minister. He held office from 1896 to 1911. His portrait is on our Blue $5 bill.

I had stumbled upon the site a long time ago after reading and hearing about it on CBC. At the time, I thought it was a neat idea but didn’t use the site. It had slipped my mind until I got a $5 bill as change at the St. Clair West TTC subway station In Toronto after attending Guelph Storm vs St. Michael’s Majors OHL game. The TTC Operator said “Here’s a interesting one for ya” when he gave me my change for the tokens. It had this site – WheresWilly.com written on it and “Please track this bill!”

So I went to the site, followed the instructions, and entered the bill’s serial number. The $5 bill had only travelled only 3.3 km from the Royal Bank’s Employee Brank in Downtown Toronto and took a almost a year to do that, which I found very funny! Many bills do end up traveling long distances, mostly in the same province but some make it out across Canada. On the website, you can see the “Top 10′ bills, provinces, users, postal codes, denominations etc. etc.

The most recent bill (in the top 10) was a $20 bill which travelled all the way from Vancouver and ended up in Napanee, Ont. It only took just over 2 years and over 3000 km!

I ended up spending that $5 bill at a Guelph Storm game. Someone did enter it as found in Guelph, but it hasn’t moved on since.

This is a pretty neat idea which maybe one of you blog readers may be inspired to try it out and see what happens with your $5, $10, or $20 bill!

Flickr Photo by Splurge