Cool Infographics brings us an interesting research project that takes the data from “Where’s George?”, a community-driven website to track individual bills by Serial Number across the US, to find unorthodox and unexpected patterns in the flow of currency across the US.  While some of the trails take huge jumps as passengers take money in one location, then fly somewhere else to spend it, most of the money moves in small localities, creating fascinating discoveries.

From Manuel Lima on VisualComplexity.com: Some places, such as Los Angeles, California, have many bills passing through it from across the nation, while others, such as Anderson County in Tennessee – Grady’s home – have bills circulating mainly within a more local neighborhood. Shown here are images from the video.  The data from the Where’s George? project is in fact so pertinent that is also being used by researchers to predict the spread of flu across the United States.

Be sure to read the full details at their site, and check out the video that shows various patterns at both small and large scales.

Community Structure in Multi-Scale Transportation Networks – Research on Complex Systems, ESAM, Northwestern University.