I found a dollar in my wallet yesterday while digging for train fare with some writing on it and stopped cold when I read it. The one-dollar bill seemed to have been made into a memorial for a friend.

RIP, Joseph Chappell

On the top in black ink it reads “RIP Joseph Allen Chappell Nov 4, 1999”
On the bottom in another pen of blue ink it reads “You will always be my friend” and along the left and right (in the same blue ink) “We miss you” and “We love you”

On the back the first date is obscured (The last digit in the birth date could be a messy or worn 9 or simply intended as a 4) but I think it reads “June 13, 1989 – Nov 4, 1999”. If it’s a 4 it doesn’t paint any less grim of a picture. This single dollar bill tribute was put together by at least two people given the handwriting and the pen colors. It looks like one person wrote in blue ink and the other wrote in black ink because the blue and black ink are very different handwriting.

I did some google searches to see if I could find any information on this unfortunate young man who passed away either at 14 or 10, but nothing turned up. The name turned up in a few places but it wasn’t him. I’m not sure on the whole story, but I can piece together the story of this dollar. Two friends took a dollar bill, wrote their tribute on it and spent the bill. 13 years later after changing hands who-knows-how-many-times it ended up with me. Perhaps they sent out multiple dollar-tributes into the market, but I can’t say that for sure.

I’ll probably go ahead and spend this dollar and continue the chain. I have also done what I think is best by putting it here for the entire whole of the internet to be able to see it.