TravelingViking

For those of you who are planing to come further south in summer, maybe you pass by the greater Harz area anyway? Well, if you do, make sure to stop by on August 5th for our Cachathon and Poker Run. I know that for non-German speaking cachers caching can be hard in Germany, but for this event we'll ensure that all new caches come with a description in English, too. C U there... Team TravelingViking

Thanks for the hint - fixed... Olaf

Either that was a very fast ship or they did go by air afterall... The Cache Zone store in the US now has these available: Tour 78 ILE DE FRANCE Geocoin Link edited

Cool, so now I can become a "living cache" - I hide someplace in the woods and wait until a cacher comes find me and logs me... Seriously, I like the idea and especially in combination with TBs, being able to give someone TBs with such a log. Olaf

On May 27th and 28th (same date as Geowoodstock) there was another great event: near Paris - at which the first French Geocoin was introduced. We toured the 78th department of France, the "Ile de France", so that is the theme of the Geocoin. For me who only understands a few words of French it was a challenging cache hunt. The day started promising: the organizer handed out first-aid kits (which I think nobody needed, but I think it was a good idea). Heads off to the organizer vnc who hid a total of 16 caches for that event, most of them multis with a total of 5 or more stars. We shipped some of the Geocoin leftovers to the USA where they will be sold through the Cache Zone USA store sometime next month (we shipped them by sea). Those who can't wait or want to be sure to get one may also order from the German Cache Zone store. Please note that shipping costs from Germany to USA have the best price/performance ratio for about 10 coins. Postage is the same for 3 to 10 coins. Olaf

It looks like Frankfurt / Rhein Main is the closest you get, we have no coin for Mannheim/Heidelberg in the pipeline. Olaf

As posted before, some are still available at the German CacheZone store. If you can wait up to 6 weeks for the delivery, the German postal office also offers a sea/land service. We would need to charge 5 Euro for the S&H, but it could be for up to 2kg (more than 4 pounds)... Olaf

Both the US and German Cache Zone stores now received the coins. All open orders will be fullfilled within the next days. We also still have a few extras, for some coins as little as 50 pieces. Both the US and German Cache Zone stores have those listed - first come, first serve... The second set of Regional coins is already ordered for production. For that set we will not be offering pre-sales anymore to avoid the constant mailing of appologies... Olaf

Bin inzwischen belehrt worden und muss wohl damit Leben das ich keine Muenzsammlung habe sondern eine Medaillensammlung...

Ich wuerde im Text ueber Geocoins folgenden Absatz gerne ersatzlos streichen: " Obwohl Coin gerne mit Münze übersetzt wird ist ein Geocoin im strengen Sinn keine solche, denn eine Münze ist oder war ein gesetzliches Zahlungsmittel was bei Geocoins nicht der Fall ist. Medaille wäre also die korrektere Übersetzung. " Ich denke nicht das der Begriff "Muenze" fuer "gesetzliche Zahlungsmittel" reserviert ist. Es gibt doch bestimmt Sammlermuenzen die nie Zahlungsmittel waren, oder nicht? Mehr dazu hier: Umfrage: Muenze oder Medaille Ausserdem wuerde ich das Bild gerne ersetzen durch eines das mehrere verschiedene Geocoins zeigt und nicht nur eine. Klar passt die deutsche Geocoin am besten auf ein deutsches Wiki aber leider ist die deutsche im Vergleich zu den hunderten anderen eher untypisch - es ist eine der wenigen (die einzige?) die tatsaechlich eher aussieht wie eine Medaille. Olaf

Thank you, allthough not spoken too - I consider myself a "friendly German". And while caching I have met friendly Cachers from many countries - including USA. The Zeitgeist of Geocaching requires lots of Fingerspitzengefuehl these days when introducing yet another twist to the game in Blitzkrieg style, otherwise we end up with discussions for the Kindergarten...

There are still a few in the German cacheZone store. However, shipping from Europe to North America is really expensive. Best price/shipping ratio is for 500gramm (a bit more than a pound), so that should be about 10 coins. Recommendation: Try to organize group orders... Olaf

Last year we took one day off from our vacation in Finland to go after a V2 M10B. In total it was a 300 mile drive on small roads with unadequate maps (just followed the GPS arrow) and we gave us only a 10% chance of finding the coin - because it was placed into the cache some 10 days earlier. Total driving time was about 8 hours, in an area where fuel cost are some $6 per gallon. The log is not spectacular: Log And? Would we do it again? - - - "Of course!" Olaf

Depending on your volume of tags you want to produce you might want to consider printable foil. There is a foil available that can be directly placed into laser printers or copiers. The printed result is absolutely water-proof. One source for the stuff is here: Waterproof Copy Film Olaf

Updates: Pictures with the samples of the first set are now available at the project page: http://www.newvikings.com/geocoins/Regions...ny/index_en.htm The samples for the second set were ordered a while ago, so they should come in soon. We will post them as soon as they become available. Reminder: if you want the first set engraved with your name, please place your order no later then March 25th 2006. After that you can still order, but not with the option to have them engraved. Thanks Olaf

Now that is a technical question that I am not qualified to answer. Probably depends on where you leave the cart. If it stands around near the cashier too long, somebody might take it back to the storage and put the coins back onto the shelves... Honestly, I am not sure where the shopping cart info is stored exactly and how long it will be remembered. Olaf

In order to better comply with "rules and regulations", the pre-order phase for the first set was changed to start: March 15th, 2006 end: March 26th, 2006 This way we have a realistic estimate that the goods can be delivered within 30 days. Sorry for the confusion, we got weak when more and more Geocoin addicts were throwing money at as. One even asked for an up-front-down-paid subscription to all of the coins - but that's not gonna happen... Olaf

Just to make sure (we didn't post all the details, had the link instead): The pre-order is primarily for those that would like to have custom engraving. If you don't need custom engraving you don't need to pre-order. Olaf

Well, we thought of making this a pre-announcement only. However, here in Europe where many payments are done by wire transfer (here that is cheaper than Paypal) we have had cachers asking us to accept orders for this since weeks - so we only broke in to their pressure... I'll see if we can add a note that Paypal shoppers should place their order on March 24th... Olaf

Finally a Geocoin project arrived where some of you will have to drop out. Don't fuel your addiction and ask yourself if you really want this... ...On the other side, we are trying to make it easy for you. A few weeks back we started the Geocoin Project "Regions of Germany" with just a few posts in the German forum. We thought that maybe we get some 5 or so regional German coins together, sponsored by the locals. Well, more and more regions signed up. You can see the current status at: http://www.newvikings.com/geocoins/Regions...ny/index_en.htm In short, each coin will be available in two finishes. The silver antique is a limited edition (probably 250), reserved for the locals. If you want one of these, you have to try to get into contact with a local and trade with her/him. The polished chrome version is available to the general public. The total number of coins minted is not yet determined. To save you some shipping costs we decided to offer pre-ordering from two locations, one in Europe and one in the USA. As some of you have learned, postage is very expensive from Europe to the USA (can be almost $10 for sending 2-3 coins). By offering pre-orders from two locations we are saving on multiple cross-ocean shipments and allow more cachers to order "locally". TEXT EDITED ON 26-FEB-06, PRE-ORDER WINDOW CHANGED The pre-order window is primarily for those that would like to receive custom engraved coins - or - just want to be really, really sure to get some. Start of pre-orders: 15th of March End of pre-orders: 26th of March We estimate that all deliveries can then be made within 30 days. Olaf

We have a few Frozen Bone Cache Zone Run coins left (both editions, GC trackable, unactivated) that we kept aside in case some needed replacement. As all original deliveries were made more than a month ago we now offer the remaining coins. To give everyone worldwide a fair chance we set up a multiple item auction (you'll find it if your search online a bit) and are offering free shipping (including international), so no extra charges besides your bid. Maybe we finally see some of these going to really remote places. Please note that some of the coins are located in Tucson, Arizona and some are in Hannover, Germany. From where your winning bid's coin(s) will be shipped will be determined after the auction ended. Please allow 1-2 weeks for delivery. Olaf

For those of you who never miss a party... The first German Geocoin Addicts Anonymous meeting is now scheduled: GAA To motivate "all" of you to come we are giving away prizes (rare Geocoins of course!) for the three teams with the longest journey to the event. So C U there! Olaf

Our TravelingViking / SeniorViking coin is also for trading only:

Couldn't this be approached at least "one step at a time"? I understand that doing "true" multilingual support is a lot of work - it would be a nice start if there is some sort of attribute saying in which languages a cache description is made available by the owner. So if I offer a cache description in English and German, I would set these two attributes. When you come someplace as tourist and can't read the local language well, you could search for the attributes of languages you can read. Next step would be to have a text field for each attribute, which would give those submitting a cache the chance to automatically put the right translation in the right spot... Olaf

Try not to discuss your alibis in those terms... the reviewer for France hangs around in here Somehow my English turned out bad here: I am in Paris for businesss trips 3-4 times per year. However, that might not be enough for 'real' maintenance. But if vnc agrees to be a backup this should work out fine. Thx. Oh, and sorry for posting English here, je ne parle pas das francais...