Jackalgirl

I don't think that there's any way to do either, I'm afraid. But you can get a lot of help with Google. First, you can convert from euros to dollars to get an idea of what you'll be paying by just typing in, as your search term, "convert x euros to dollars" where "x" is the actual number. And the text that you get when you select "Proceed to Cart" is something like: "you can now put your coins in the shopping cart. You can complete the request [order] in the next step. Please double-check the desired quantity." And the button says something like [Put the coins in the shopping cart and complete the order]. As for actual payment: it's done through PayPal. You'll pay in Euros, but PayPal will automatically convert at whatever exchange rate it's using and pull that quantity of dollars out of your account. Very handy, PayPal. ; ) I hope this helps!

OooOOOOoooo! Error coins! The best! Pick me randomly, pick me! ; )

Awesome! : )

Some of my tags decided to go check out the cherry blossoms this year (while I'm still in the process of setting them up). It's a really somber year in Japan, given that something like 25,000 people were killed on March 11 by the earthquake & tsunami in northern Japan, but cherry blossoms are a profound and inherent symbol of renewal and so they do bring some hope that Japan will recover from its devastating losses. They're all small chirimen (Japanese cloth) beanbags of zodiac animals, but also animals that Heifer provides to people in need. I have to find a pig and set up the rooster with a tag, and then the set should be more or less complete and ready to go. : )

Howdy! Good questions all. 1) If none of the tags make it back to the Georally, I'll hold a random drawing to determine a winner of The Big Box o' Swag. : ) 2) Well, I'll open up a dialogue with the person if their tag is not family-friendly or somehow inappropriate (e.g., makes fun of poor people, makes fun of people's ethnicities, or otherwise mocks the idea of sustainable charity). If it's not family-friendly, I /believe/ (though I'm not sure) that Geocaching.com might step in if I can't reach an understanding. Otherwise, if the person insists on being "that guy", I simply won't list it. It'll still unfortunately be listed in the system, but I won't make reference to it. I sure hope that no one decides to do this, since I'm offering them as a measure of trust and faith in people's honesty in wanting to support the idea behind the whole project. 3) They sure have! Check out the Great Cow Tag Race Cowtests and Rules page for more information. There are two categories: the race itself, and "Cows Around the World" (for those tags people have purchased and released themselves). In the "Cows Around the World" category, two "cowtests" -- "Most Original" and "Squee!" will be decided by July 18th of this year. Winners will get a small-to-medium cache (lock-n-lock) stuffed with authentic Japanese 100 Yen store swag* and an unactivated "Good Deeds" Artist's Edition geocoin. (The link is to the coin thread in the Geocoin Discussions Forum; to see the art for the coin itself, check out the Cowtest link) *Japanese 100 Yen store swag is vastly superior to US dollar store (stuff. almost said another word). It is quirky and wonderful and makes outstanding trade goods.

Howdy, everyone -- May I suggest that if you're looking for auction and cart capability, and if your geocoin sales per year on eBay are significant, that you consider setting up your own site? If, for example, if you get hosting with a service that provides you with a PHP server, there are scads of open source PHP applications out there. My site service, which I won't post about because I don't want to shill for a hosting service (and since it's only the second one I've used anyway, so I can't offer useful advice as to how it compares to others, but PM me if you want more info) has a service called "fantastico" that will automatically install such stuff as ZenCart (not the only cart offered) and PHPAuction. I'm thinking very seriously about the latter; on the one hand, when I do geocoin auctions, eBay offers me access to a broader audience. But I don't think it's the broader audience who's buying my coins -- I think it's you guys, when I post links to the Forum. If I'm reading the features correctly, we (the geocoin community) could use PHPAuction to set up our own community auction site (with all of us able to post auctions as sellers). We could set our own shipping policies, and wouldn't run afoul of eBay's policies or fees. On the downside, however, there wouldn't be the kind of buyer protection built in that eBay has. One bad apple could really ruin it for everyone. Thoughts?

It was actually the very first one I did, before I came up with the "season" naming scheme for color combinations. But I've absolutely no objections to it being named "Winter" since it's all wintery and all. : )

Howdy! Well, I want to help. : ) Let me know if Ferals in Need /doesn't/ have an online donation option; I have other options but I'll leave that to email to work out the details. Meow!

For what it's worth, I've put another AE up for auction, this time to benefit two animal charities in South Carolina. Check out my post in the Oceanside Kitties coin thread for the link to the auction. Thanks bunches for the kudos; I'm pleased that people are getting a kick out of the coins. I think they really turned out beautifully; Mike did a great job working with the mint to get them just right. : )

I'd mentioned to AG that I'd like to donate to her charities some amount for the AE, and the going price for the AE seems to be between $50 and $200 and of course I want to be generous, but with the recent "voluntary departure", my paycheck has taken a deep hit. So I thought about it and figured that the best thing to do would be an AE for an AE. I've put up one of my Egyptian Key AEs up for sale on eBay and will split the winning bid (rounded up if it doesn't split into a whole dollar amount) between Coastal Animal Rescue and Ferals in Need. I'll be picking up all of the incidentals on my end (my PayPal fees, eBay fees, and shipping/handling), so all the winning bid will go to the shelters minus whatever eBay hits them for on their end (and if I can actually work out the math, I'll add a little extra so they actually get your winning bid). Anyway, here's that link again: Egyptian Key - AE Thanks for looking, and thanks to AG for the cointest! I'm pretty stoked about getting the AE. : )

Heh -- I like it! : ) I assume the tracking text & code are on the edge?

Got mine, too. Very nice! Thanks for putting out these coins. : )

...and the auctions are up in the abovementioned thread. It's high time I went to bed. Good night! : )

Okay, four new auctions! These are for the Artist's Edition of the Egyptian Key geocoin: And the links are: Auction #1 - Egyptian Key AE Auction #2 - Egyptian Key AE Auction #3 - Egyptian Key AE Auction #4 - Egyptian Key AE I'll be donating 100% of the winning bids to the Japan Red Cross Society and will pick up all associated fees, including shipping. As always, bidding wars are greatly appreciated! : ) But seriously, I really do appreciate all of the support (and bids) that auctions for Japan have gotten in here. Thank you so much!

I'm actually going to be putting some of the AEs up for auction for the benefit of Japan - check out the Japan Geocoin Auctions for Earthquake Relief thread. I'll probably have them up tonight, given that I really, really ought to spend tomorrow doing proper work (in between meetings). Ah, the dangers of being home with a freely-available computer and Adobe Illustrator!

Well, I missed out on the regular BN coins (gotta move fast!) but have ordered a couple of the golden ones. Can't wait to check it out.

Howdy! One of the problems you'll run into with geocoins is that they are pretty expensive to make. Your standard coin is made by mashing a piece of metal between two dies, and the cost to make those dies varies but is rarely less than $50 per die, and of course you need two. Add this to the fact that most mints want a minimum quantity of 100 pieces, and that the tracking codes cost $1.50 per code, and you end up looking to spend a huge chunk of change to make something truly customizable. However, there are some nice alternatives. One is to make use of a photo-insert to customize a standard coin. Check out this thread for more information about a personalizable geocoin by Sepp & Berta. Another is to get custom engraving on a standard coin design. Several vendors offer this, so if you check out the pinned vendor thread. If you do a little more searching, you should find some who offer engravable geocoins. And keep an eye on the Forums, because I happen to know that other vendors are coming up with ways to keep the costs down. Also, be on the lookout for projects, in which people get to customize a common design with their own names, colors, glitters, etc. You wouldn't be able to go in for just one coin in most cases, but if you're looking for an economical way to get a whole batch of customized coins at any point, that's always a good option. Hope this helps!

As it was a nice sunny day today, and as I'd gotten a nice, big box from Cache Addict (Christmas in April! Yaaay!), I thought I'd shoot some pics: Antique Silver "Spring" - Satin Gold "Summer" - Antique Bronze "Autumn" - Satin Copper "Royal" - Gold and Silver Two-Tone "Midnight" - Nickel and Black Nickel Two-Tone Artist's Edition - Black Nickel Yes, that is a towel. ; ) The coins are about 3" tall and a little over 1.5" wide and come in a little drawstring velveteen bag. All of the coin editions except for the AE and "Midnight" (sold out -- sorry folks) are available at the Cache Addict's site. Thanks for looking!

Once again, THANK YOU to everyone's who's donated coins or has bid or is otherwise doing something to support Japan. DOMO ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU! : ) (heh; I tried to put "gozaimasu" in past tense and ran afoul of the autocensor!)

...and it's done! Sixty-two dollars (rounded up) for two coins is not so shabby at all. : ) Congratulations to the winners, and I have already made the donation to the JRC: And I just got back from the post office, too. The coins are on their way!

Only about six to ten MINUTES to go on these auctions: V (Volunteer) Edition! AE! Thanks for your support!

Well, I read the collectable info (linked by kpanko) and it seems to say both. The idea behind the collectable status was to allow cachers who have a collection of activated geocoins to keep them in a separate list so that they have the icons show in their online listing, but that when they're caching they don't have a zillion-long coin list to sort through when logging trackables through caches. Say I've got 50 activated coins (that I activated for the icons) and two TBs I'm in the process of moving. I can now move them into my collection and free up the inventory list so that the inventory only shows 2 items (the TBs) vice 52. The info does say (not exactly, but the upshot is) that if you mark a coin as collectable and release it, it indicates to other cachers that it's a coin that they can keep. I personally think that this is a bad idea. If I've got something in my collection and decide to release it, I'd darned better well remember to change its status or I'm basically telling people they can keep it. I would rather that the four status indicators be: * Traveller - meant to travel * In a Collection or "Private Collection" - in a collection. Shouldn't be out in the wild. * Gift - you can keep this if you find it Instead of "unknown", a coin's status should default to "Traveller". An owner should have to take explicit action to give any status to a coin that could even breathe the possibility that it might be kept by a cacher.

I realize that I didn't answer your question, for which I apologize. You asked: Though since I see you've already put thoughts into my head and thusly may not believe me, I wouldn't have minded. Because the designs are different. There is not an inexhaustible fund of geocaching-related themes, so I don't believe it would even occur to me to consider one off-limits.

Nope, Jim, I didn't copy any coin of Paula's (knowingly, that is). I came up with this design during discussions about 10-10-10 events last year (and if I've seen "Geocaching Virtues", and I'm sure I must have at some point, it didn't even enter my mind). As it turned out, the coin was unsuitable as a group coin, so it was reworked to be a stand-alone design. Edited to add: Ah yes, this coin: I remember it now that I've seen it again. To be honest, I wasn't really taken with "Geocaching Virtues" so I forgot about it (until now). My design is very different from this one, though the theme (of actions or qualities considered by the community as those that make up the actions of a "good" geocacher) is the same. So it doesn't surprise me that the wording of some of the desired qualities -- such as respecting nature and trading -- are the same or similar. In my case, I came up with the idea of talking about geocaching "good deeds" because I found the Yoruba quote and decided to go with it (and because I couldn't figure out a good way to tie the binary addition of 101010 into 42 as in "the ultimate answer" in any meaningful way to geocaching, which was one of the original ideas floated). So thanks for the criticism, but I believe that my design is different enough to stand on its own and to reiterate, I wasn't looking at Paula's design at all, nor did I even remember it, at the time I was working on this one. Whether you believe me or not, that's up to you.

Only about six hours to go on these auctions: V (Volunteer) Edition! AE! Looks like someone's set to get these beauties at very reasonable prices -- from a buyer point of view, this is good, but from a Japan-support point of view, it's terrible! I want these prices to be as UNreasonable as possible. ; ) Can you help out? Thanks for your support!