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3MonkeysSafari

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Everything posted by 3MonkeysSafari

  1. Here is my hand-made nickel. More info about how I make these at: http://3monkeyssafari.blogspot.com/2008/08...en-nickels.html BTW - I like to collect nickels and other sig items, so please feel free to email me if you want to trade.
  2. I have started hand making my wooden nickels and I'm pretty happy with the results. If anyone would like to trade, you can just email with your address and I will drop one in the mail and send you my address. A photo and how I make them... http://3monkeyssafari.blogspot.com/2008/08...en-nickels.html
  3. I would encourage you to keep on with this and would love to trade with you. I haven't been in geocaching very long, but the minted coins seem to me to be a pretty expensive (albeit non-essential) part of the hobby. I'm going down the same path... have started making handmade coins. Here's how I'm doing mine for anyone interested. Wood Coin Blanks: The typical wooden coins that you see online and in bulk at craft stores are 1.5"... nice for sig items, but not very substantial. I've been using 2" wooden coins. They are more substantial and I like the feel. You can get them in small quantities at craft stores or from wooden-nickels.com. I've also played around with other wood patterns that you can find at craft stores (i.e. stars, etc) Printing / Graphics: I looks like people are burning, stamping or printing on these. I did a nice, clean graphic design for mine and am printing them in color on 1.5" round labels. I tried typical office supply paper lables first and they don't look very clean when you put spar eurethane on them. I found vinyl 1.5" round labels at onlinelabels.com. These hold laser print very nicely and with 3-4 coats of spar eurethane I think they look very good. Finish: I tried various wood stains on my coins. Of course, stain was applied and allowed to dry before applying the labels and then finishing with spar eurethane. This looked nice, especially with dark stains but adds about a day to the process for me. Now I'm just applying the eurethane to the unstained wood and I think it looks nice. Complete Process: After much trial and error with the steps indicated above, I've landed on the following process: 1. Print front and back labels on 1.5" round vinyl labels. 2. Apply the lables to the center of a 2" wood coin blank. 3. Carefully drill a hole near the edge of the coin. 4. Use a bent paper clip to dip the coin into a can of Spar Eurethane. 5. Using the paperclip, hand the coin to dry. I use a wire rack shelf to do this and keep paper shop towels underneath to catch eurethane drippings. 6. Allow the finish to dry for several hours. 7. Repeat steps 4-6 two or three more times. Sand uneven spots lightly in between coats. Finished! Admittedly its a lot of work... but I really like the end result. A picture is attached: The one on the far right was printed on a vinyl label. See how much sharper? Oh yeah... I don't know if you can get tracking numbers from Groundspeak... I kind of doubt it. Your other tracking options are: 1. Buy metals coins and print their tracking numbers on your wooden coins. Expensive and you are probably breaking some term of service, but would probably work. 2. Attach a travelbug to your coins. Less expensive than number 1 but still not cheap. 3. Sigitem.com ... This is not the same as the geocoin tracking numbers, but accomplishes some of the same things and free. The guy who runs this site is awesome, but he does make it clear that because this is a free service setup can can take a while. 4. Travelertags - not the same as geocoin tracking numbers, tracked through a separate. Buck a piece for tracking numbers and lots of people don't like the site. 5. A couple of international sites out there that seem wacky to me but probably usable. Geokrety and Geolutins. Free. 6. Put an email address or blog site on and ask people to let you know where the coins ended up. Free.
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