After the Vietnam war, a lot of colleges that were busy during the hay day of the war as a way to keep from going overseas, suddenly were scrambling to attract or enroll students to keep the doors open. Ricker College in Houlton Maine was one of those. In the last days of the school, the people who worked at Ricker College were paid with money marked to point out to the local community and merchants what an economic impact the well know college established in 1848 had on the area. The exercise was to showcase the involvement the college had in everyone’s day to day lives by illustration with the money you spent, currency change you received in the Southern Aroostook County area. Ricker closed its doors in 1978 but stills awards college scholarships to deserving area students that apply for tuition help, as long as they attend a Maine college.

Meanwhile, have you heard about “Where’s George?”

The exercise in tracking currency and it’s winding pathway around the globe was something the fellow in front of me at breakfast told me about while waiting for the Big Stop restaurant cashier.

This big rig driver was holding a bill with a red circle around the currency stamp. He explained how he had tracked the serial number of a dollar he once spent and even had the same dollar come back to him in change! The exercise or study allows you to go on line to track a bill with the designated logo stamped on it by dialing in the serial number to track the bill’s movements from wallet to purse and beyond. In Canada, same exercise with a sister website called “Where’s Willy?”. The truck driver I met at The Big Stop Restaurant on US Rt 1 near Interstate 95’s exit 302 for Houlton Maine said he has had fun looking up serial numbers on the bills he has had pass thru his fingers over the years.

Maine Licensed Real Estate Broker Andrew Mooers
This is a typical track of currency and how the reporting works.