Background
Originally beginning in the United States in the mid-1990s, the phenomenon or hobby of currency tracking quickly spread first to Canada and then beyond. Especially with the Euro bill tracking, trackers have taken on a much more competitive nature and have formed communities within their respective sites. Many successful sites incorporate some sort of social media, either through site specific unique techniques, or through outside popular social media sites. In the Eurozone because multiple countries having adopted the Euro, this easily leads to competition between trackers in different countries; in the United States competition plays out at the state or county level; and in Canada, at the provincial level.
Canada, once a thriving bill tracking country, has been hit hard by the introduction of cotton bills and later polymer bills, making currency tracking through marking bills nearly impossible. This trend is causing growing concern throughout currency tracking sites around the world, already having decimated New Zealand and Vietnam. In Australia, the country with the longest exposure to polymer, attempts were made in 2006 to form The Money Tracker which tracks Australian Dollars without marking of any kind. If successful, it could be huge breakthrough to the polymer problem, meaning adjustment could be made to existing tracking sites to allow the tracking of polymer banknotes. If a breakthrough is not made, it could mean the collapse of currency tracking as a result of the polymer problem.
Marking bills in Canada with ink or rubber stamp is legal. In the United States, marking is illegal if intended to deface the bill; however, this is rarely enforced and only a fine is faced, if convicted. Marking is widespread in both countries. In the Eurozone marking is not universal, and varies by region. The European Central Bank considers the marking of bills (as well as the destruction of them) to be legal and not exclusive to governments.
Read more about this topic: Currency Bill Tracking
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