vilts

Another one one the move: TB2YA95

And one more for the race: TB2YABT

Thanks for the interest. I will start making the new ones as I go and definitely will post here if something new comes along. I just finished second coin and here's a little photo... Just so... The thing on the right is the engraving tool itself. The large coin is of course the original that I based my design on. For interested people, here's bird's eye view of how the process looks like: . Watch in HQ

Cost for one coin is still work in progress. It depends on so many things and I wouldn't want to nail anything specific down just now. I can say right now tho, that they will on the expensive end of coin prices. Doing one of these babies takes me at least 2 hours... The minimum order is at least 1 - they're all made one-by-one I will buy myself a bunch of tracking numbers and the coins will go under one name.

Rockin Roddy, you are next on my todo list, I haven't forgotten you

Hello again, The big busy-ness is kinda over and I finally got time to work on first coin. This one was for Fox-And-The-Hound based on his own coin. Currently this is the only one in the world . That is, until I start making the next ones. This technique is called double cut sculpting, 'piddling' and some other fancy names. This is brass coin with 25mm diameter. Tracking numbers with required text will be engraved on the side. Enjoy!

Is same design-pattern on different metals considered a different design and needs a separate approval? Yes, plating is one more option, but I'm not sure how good it will look. If the plating will be thick it will start to degrade the fine engraved lines. If it will be very thin, then it will rub off too easily. Ahh, so many options

It depends on the type. Pure Ti is allright, but some types, like the one they use airplanes, are real buggers. Extremely tough and break graver points for breakfast. I'll have to get a sample from them first and see if it's usable or not. Actually it would be a real nice if I could do sets in different metals like other coin suppliers do - bronze, brass, copper, silver, stainless steel, titanium, blued steel and whatnot. But first things first, must finish these 20 coins for the 'market test'

So I got little time over the weekend and prepared the coin blanks for engraving. The regular ones are 4mm thick and I also made two 10mm thick ones for special edition - so I can engrave the sides too. Diameter is 25mm, or 1". "Track at geocaching.com" text will be on the sides. Now I 'just' have to make the design I was wondering, would there also be interest in coins made of titanium (and possibly anodized)? Looks like my local supplier has it in stock too...

That's also an idea, but then it wouldn't be totally handmade... I might be too egoistic, but I like the 100% DIY version Good idea, but I think if I want to go to mass production (well, 100+ coins at a time), I'll make my own hubs and dies and strike the coins myself. Or cast them. Fortunately I have all the needed equipment. Again, I like the feeling of handmade stuff... Maybe I'm weird I've been looking and looking, but didn't find anywhere the place I could purchase the tracking numbers? Also I read that for single coins I make I could buy Travel Bugs and use their tracking numbers (disposing the tags themselves, of course). Is this correct?

Don't worry if I answer many hours later. I'm always online during daytime, but just 8 hours ahead of US time, plus a day job that I actually enjoy . That's a tough question. I don't know what an average geocoin is . But I think I can't get anything done under a hour, plus design time. So let's say from an hour to... no hard limit at all. Just to give an idea - the following practice plate took about 12 hours (I would've taken ~4 hours less if I hadn't chosen to inlay hard material into soft... silly me). The plate is 2x2 inches, engraving itself 1x1 inches. This is copper with silver wire (0.3mm/0.012") inlay. Here I was just foolin' around with different techniques. I know this isn't a get-rich-quick thing for me, or even a way to earn living. It's just a hobby that I hope someday will grow into something more. This is also the reason I try to make them available price-wise to as many people as possible. So it's a win-win-win situation: I get to practice my skills, some people will get hopefully nice coins and I can promote the art of hand engraving. Yes, I did think about it. That would be good for the first try of 10 or so coins and if proved successful then I can buy 100 or 250 directly. I'll see if I can get the numbers from somewhere. Btw. what benefit would the custom icon give me if I buy 250 numbers? Would it be sort of company logo for me? P.S. Not to overload and bore you to death with engraving info, but there's an art form called 'hobo nickels'. Basically you take existing coin, usually Buffalo nickel, and carve it to something else. My first and not so successful try: Of course such carving takes much-much more time than regular engraving. But it's a possibility. Anyways, I will start to think seriously about this and when all other waiting engravings are finished I'll give it a go. Hopefully I have time in the mean time to doodle with designs.

I don't do etching per se. It's quite different technique from the engraving I do. But sure, I could try and see what you'd like to get recreated. What is FTF?

Thanks for the responses and advice. I am aware of the design submission requirements. I spent quite a few days reading geocoin faq's and all relevant info I could find on it. One question tho. As I can buy the numbers in minimum batches of 100, does this also mean that minimum amount of coins I could do is 100? Or could I use these 100 numbers on 10 different, but approved, designs? I think my action plan is first to make a design and if it gets accepted, then maybe a test run of 10 copper coins. If all goes well, then rinse-repeat.

Thanks everybody for positive feedback. Seems like an idea worth pursuing. I hadn't thought about making one off custom coins, but if there's interest, why not. Helps me to refine my design skills even more... Sure, it is custom work anyways and made one by one, so anything is possible, as long as I can engrave it. Minimum, I'd say 1 . Your avatar is doable, maybe some little modifications, but otherwise not too complicated. About price, maybe you could send me a higher res image of your avatar and also tell how big coin you want. Then I can tell more. I made one Volga Zippo show-off video, that maybe gives an idea. Nothing too fancy, just basic lines and little shading. If you mean base material, then copper, brass, silver and stainless steel I have right now available. Bronze and others I can get as needed. On later phase I'd like to start making dies and striking the coins too, but I'm not really sure it's feasible with so many companies doing just that with machines. Maybe I just do some runs for the fun of it and see what will happen with the coins .

Hello cachers! One of my hobbies is hand engraving and I was wondering whether there would be interest in hand engraved geocoins. To clarify a bit. The engraving I talk about is the old style metal cutting with engraver, not computer controlled lasers etc. _Very_ quick video about the process is on Zippo engraving video. And a small sample of a result: The size of this engraving is 1.4" x 0.43", so it could be very detailed, if wanted so. The downside is that these coins would be made one by one, so the 'production' runs could be 10 to 25 pieces per design. Mainly to not to bore me to death with on design hundred times over . Price, you might ask? It could vary very-very much, mostly it would depend on the complexity. The above engraving took about 4 hours. Much simpler/faster styles could be used, check my blog to see different tries. So let's say coin with 1 inch diameter and both sides engraved could run from $15USD to... well, no upper limit really Or is this all just my another stupid idea? Viljo <moderator edit to add that these coins will be trackable when they are made>