haysonics

You know what.... I hadn't even thought of this. If this is to be the new currency to be used in NWO, will there be seperate denominations? Or will this be reminiscent of hundreds of years ago when a standard denomination was actually cut to make change (nikos maybe you can help me out with what that was call..... I keep thinking of the word "pence", but I can't find the technical term for the life of me). Also... I am not sure.... but I think this coin has reeded edges. If this coin is to be produced in precious metals, I am sure the reeded edges would remain. This was first used as a deterrent from fraudulent coins and to keep people from "skimming" some of the gold or silver off of the edges. The grooves make it easy recognize whether or not the coin has been reduced. Would there be any other types of security enhancements in the coinage? From the ancient times coins used to be cut to make change! This was because the coins had value! I mean... a drachma of Silver was made out of silver that costed 1 drachma! So.. if you were cuting it in half... This was in use in roman times, in Medieval times (the cros that most of the medieval coins had was helping the merchants to cut the coins in half or in quarters!! after all.. they used to weight the coins for a big transaction! Some clever guys used to cut the coin around and make it smaller just to earn slver... that is illegal and the punishment was huge, but to avoid that... new designs and the edge design started to apear!), even in the 1600's, 1700's.... Many places used to cut coins, mostly the silver pieces of eight, from Spain, and restamp them to make changes... other countries like Chine were seeing silver coins just like metal... With the cut coins you mention you are probably talking about the Holley dollars in Australia right? They were taking a Spanish 8 reals they were cuting a circle of the inner and they had 2 coins the outer ring as Holley dollar (5 shillings) with new stamp on it, and the Dunp (5 cent) made from the inner part that was cut, that they made it a coin! I think these were for the New South Wales and dated 1813... (no, I do not have them! ) The Spanish 8 Reale was often cut into 8 pieces which were known as "Pieces of Eight" and prominent in the U.S. colonies. In the 1870's the U.S. produced a coin to match the 8 Reale. It was made of 90% silver and called the Trade Dollar. As the coins had the same value as each other a single Reale was therefore worth 12.5 cents. 2 pieces (aka 2 bits) was therefore worth 25 cents. If you know the phrase "I wouldn't give 2 bits" then you know he means he wouldn't give you a quarter dollar. As for the Holley Dollar and Dump, yes that was made from the 8 Reale and cut in the specific way you described. Then the pieces were stamped over. You need some serious $$$ to own those these days (I live in New South Wales but unfortunately do not get a discount). To kind of bring this back to the topic (still not quite about the geocoin), seclorum was mistranslated as "world" when it means "secular". This likely happened when someone assumed that as America was the New World that Novus Seclorum must mean New World. So the N.W.O. is actually the N.S.O. which is America with its separation of Church and State. That separation allowed its citizens (especially the Puritans) to escape religious persecution as occured in Europe due to the entwining of religion and state.

Do you propose a return to currency made out of precious metals? e.g. where a dollar is made out of a dollar's worth of silver?

Brilliant !!!

A quick note to add that I sympathise with those that have been burned by those two vendors. I can understand those whom got ripped off (or friends thereof) having negative feelings about presales. My comments were aimed at certain vendor/s that are slamming presales. Those that took others money could just as easily have claimed they had coins in their stores when they didn't. The slamming of presales is a underhanded way for some vendors (that don't do presales) to attack other vendors (that do presales). The collateral damage is that its keeps IMO the best system (presales) from you (collectors).

And before my time as well but that doesn't stop those whom wish to promote their own business from keeping the memory of those bogeymen alive in the forums. Its a less than subtle way of sluring those businesses who have and do successfully conduct presales. Let those folk that constantly bang on about having "goods in the store" offer us C.O.D. Oh no, that's not gonna happen. They want your money before they are going to actually send you anything. You have to trust that they are going to send you their goods So either way, you still hand over money before you see anything. The only difference is that there is a longer wait for your goods following a presale. That's a small disadvantage compared to the benefits for both buyer and seller in the presale system. I have a dream that one day my 40 little children will live in a world without 2nd rate REs. Until then we shall pay exhorbitant amounts on ebay for LEs that we missed out on because we missed someones 3am web sale. I refuse to join their cults and drink their cool aid. They can keep their secret newsletters and funny handshakes. I will not be subjected to sleep deprivation; continually pressing F11 like a some sycophantic geozombie. Let there be LEs for all !!!

I don't think pre-sales will go over real well. What if the presale is replaced by reservations? The problem with reservations is that way too many people reneg on their order. Pre-sales have been great except for 2 vendors that skipped town. I wouldn't be surprised if we are still hearing about those 2 vendors in a hundred years

My ideal system would be : 1 - Hold a presale so that people get a chance to order whatever versions of a coin they like 2 - At the end of the presale announce what number of each version will be made 3 - Do not remint The benefits of this system are : Everyone has the opporunity to get the coins they actually want Every version of a coin is an LE Vendors never suffer from overstock Probably the resaon we dont have this system already is that there have been 2 vendors (who are no longer in business) who abscondered with peoples money and at least one interested party who will forever remind us about it. So, for the moment, we find our market awash with REs that few people actually want and LEs that eveyone wants but few people can actually get because someone has decided that only XXX amount will be produced.

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Never went into production. Only a sample (seen in the picture) was made. One less you have to look for now

Yep, R.E. stands for 'regular edition'. FYI, an R.E. can be reminted if the vendor desires. Some vendors only mint once so their R.E.'s naturally become L.E.'s while others mint them for as long as they sell.

It would be great to have a wiki for geocoins ! Does anyone know if a wiki can be hosted for free somewhere ?

Even better; with only 33 of each version you can think of them all as XLEs. Traditionally, an XLE is simply a version done in fewer numbers than the LE but in your situation, minting the same number of each version there is no comparison. But you can look at the number of each and say 33 falls within XLE territory. Van Gogh only made 1 version of each of his paintings but found each very hard to sell. Now each of his works fetch astronomical prices.

Granted it is difficult to predict price trends but if you consider most geocoins good art then over time those coins' values should rise. I am hesitant to say "will" but personally believe it is a sure thing. I am referring to the limited editions which is what I collect. That LE's are done in the hundreds is small compared to general art market where LE's are usually done in the thousands. The low numbers justified for me going a bit nuts and spending more on them than I first planned. IMO, demand for geocoins can't go much lower than it is now. I think the geocoin market bottomed out a couple of years ago and there has been a slow climb to where it is now, mostly spurned by new collectors coming in. I doubt that geocoins have ever come into fashion. There was a couple of inflation periods where the numbers of people that actually knew what a geocoin was went from hundreds to thousands and then tens of thousands but the fact that it is still relatively easy to get an LE today tells you they haven't reached fashionabilty per se. Geocoins durability, coupled with the fact that a collection is usually looked after should see geocoins minted today being around when your grandchildren are ready to take over their guardianship. I look forward to seeing your glass enameled geocoin.

It is not against protocol to revive an old thread as far as I am aware. Beany Babies have been mentioned in regards to the abundance of new versions that appeared when they became "collectable". As the market became awash with them the price headed south as you would expect. The prices for older geocoins ( pre 2006 ) began dropping when more intricate designs + geocoins with transulcent colours started appearing and may be at a low point so now is a good time to buy those if that's what you like. The exception is the first ever geocoins which continue to command a high price for obvious reasons. Tastes change so there is always a chance we could see a resurgence in price for older coins. If geocoins appear in a Hollywood blockbuster the market would move up in a big way, at least for a period. It's hard to say what the future has install for geocoins but i would say its positive because many geocoins were/are made in small numbers. Compare that to Star Wars trading cards which were made in massive amounts. You can pickup a pristine set for $20 today.

You mentioned hundreds of dollars. I heard that a V1 went for over a $1000 which would make it (although illegally sold) the highest dollar earner to date.

Tsun, 7 months is waaay too long. It would be interesting to know why the buyer waited 7 months before contacting you. I can only assume he/she forgot about the order. If you are 99% sure you have dispatched all your orders then its too late for the buyer to expect you to cover coins that have been lost in the post. I have had 2 orders take 6 weeks to reach my mailbox because our customs didn't like the look of the Xrays of those packages so figure 2 months is an adequate covering period. 3 months if you want to play it really safe.

i think the thread about that sale says it was an invalid sale or some such, not a real sale. It turned out to be an invalid sale. As for Moun10bike coins, I heard a V1 went for over $1000 on that eplace many years ago. Can anyone confirm that ?

A millenium chip? Wow... that's some serious sobriety if you're not a mummy. lmao.... I only saw the 3 year on it..... but I guess that mummies could have their vices as well. Yes they do. Cocaine has been detected in a number of mummies.

there were more than 25 of the mardi gras tranquility minted including remints. I don`t wanna have a discussion about that, but at the note to this coin stands "SE 25 pieces". Isn´t that right? I know the discussions about mintings etc. . RSG is saying there are more than 25 of the Mardi Gras edition because it was reminted. So it is no longer a "SE 25 pieces". Your Mardi Gras is likely from the 1st minting. A lot of editions were reminted. Don't worry though, all Tranqs are valuable.

Don't worry about the double posting, that happens when everyone is on this site at once. Thanks for the clarification about your comment. I am sure you are right and that Groundspeak would be happy with cache owners engaging in a bit of CITO. You got me thinking with your riddle that if ESP tokens are "not junk mail, what are they akin to?". Supermarket shopping bags comes to mind. You know the ones that foul up the environment, strangle dolphins, etc

Welcome to the geocoin forum. It is great to meet so many new folks through this thread. What Eartha actually said was "The tokens were placed without Groundspeak approval." That is a definite foul and no amount of spin doctoring will compensate for the perception that these plastic tokens are akin to junk mail.

Bidding advice for newbs (assuming you have missed out getting a coin at a shop) If you see an item you want work out the maximum amount you would feel comfortable paying for it and place your bid for that amount within the last 10 seconds of the auction. The benefit of this strategy is twofold. 1- You avoid personal competition with people which means other bidders may compete amongst themselves but you won't have added to the price yourself until the last moment. This is a good thing if you are going to end up having to pay for the item. You may loose an auction but that will be because someone has paid more for an item than you were prepared to. 2 - You will win some coins cheaply but others will cost you your maximum amount. In the long run the cost will average out to ebay average market value. That average should increase over time. Its not a guarantee but if you were aiming to make money you would buy coins from shops at shop prices. You are buying off ebay cause you want to own particular coins you missed out on at shops. As you are a newb that will be a lot of coins so the best you can do is average price and hope for a long term increase in value. DO NOT play the bidding war game yourself. Stay out of it and bid right at the end. Auctions are mostly of benefit to sellers. It's rare you will win a decent coin at auction for less than it originally sold for at a shop. That's why ebay makes so much money. Ebay doesn't make you place multiple bids or bid before the last 10 seconds so don't. Its not poker. You can't bluff cause you are not holding any cards (only your wallet). You don't win the losers money. The loser doesn't pay anything, only the winner, and you hope that is going to be you. The value of the "prize" doesn't increase through bidding (only its cost to you). It's a coin not an increasing pot. "Crazy ebay prices" often occur because people think ebay is a like a poker game and employ poker strategy.

I interpret this to mean that if you see an item that you want you bid over your desired buying price in order to win the prize or (if you arn't successful) to make the winner pay a high price for something you want. In that sense its a win/win scenario for you. I think most people do that. I doubt you see any of your winnings as zonk prizes cause you have already told us you bid on items you want. Would I be correct to think you only bid on items you want?

Thanks for the info ! That explains the close timing of those bids. I hope ernie issues a Non Payment to the "winner" so that ebay can try and isolate the individual. Not sure exactly how it works as I signed up for an account a decade ago. Can't remember if I had to supply credit card details. Considering ebay owns paypal it's probably not wise to try and dupe them out of a fat commission.

I see your point. The bid was sitting at $25.03 for days and then : On 5 Sept i***i comes on the scene at 11:32am with a maximum bid of $500. Ebay automatically bids for i***i and the auction moves up to $26.03 1 minute later at 11:33 i***4 appears with a maximum bid of $290 That is automatically trumped by i***i initial maximum bid of $500 and the auction moves up to $295 1 minute later at 11:34 i***4 returns with a bid which we know is at least $510 as he wins the auction. Three real (not auto) bids over the space of 3 minutes after 5 days of quiet AND the bids are out of proportion to what is being sold and the bid history up to that point. Indeed, either something fishy went on or the bidders went all-out against each other without realising that the winner was going to end up a looser due to the $$$