Good ideas should be copied.

The most interesting one I have seen recently is a promotionaleffort by the Hawaii State Numismatic Association.

It is based on an old idea of spending rare coins intocirculation in hopes someone will find them.

Instead of old coins, the Hawaiian organization spent 100specially marked $1 bills into circulation.

These are more likely to be encountered in change by averagepeople.

However, even with the number of $1 bills spent, only two werefound. They were redeemed Sept. 23 at the three-day coin show atthe Hawaii Convention Center in Waikiki.

Michael Mochizuki reports that top prize of a $500 giftcertificate went to Reid Takamiya of Honolulu, who was first toreport his find and turn it in at the show.

The gift certificate was spent at the show.

Imagine what you could do with $500 on a bourse?

The second person to report a find was Theodore Ho, also ofHonolulu.

His prize was a $200 gift certificate.

Three other prizes went unclaimed.

That's a shame, but it gave me an idea.

The HSNA overprint dollar should be treated like a "Where'sGeorge?" bill.

Like "Where's George?" the reporting process should be openended.

Report the finds of the other 97 bills online.

The three unused prizes could be given to the next threeindividuals to report their finds.

On the other hand, to keep interest lively, simply collectreports of finds over the next 12 months and have a drawing amongthe future finders to award the three remaining prizes.

That means the idea of circulation finds would live allyear.

To do this, of course, the club would have to have recordedserial numbers.

If they didn't this year, there is always next year.

A paper dollar is a far better circulation finds item than anexpensive coin that might simply disappear - which was the fateof most such coins in promotions past.

To read the complete article, see:
Hawaii'sidea should spread(www.numismaticnews.net/buzz/hawaiis-idea-spread)