thehawkers3

I recently stumbled upon a group of coins in a cache. There weren't supposed to be any coins in that cache, so I took them home to see if I could fix whatever mistake had been made. I was stunned when I realized that 2 of them had not been logged since 2008, 3 of them had not been logged since 2011, and 1 had not been logged since 2013. I've heard from 2 of the coin owners since I logged them and they were stunned that they showed up after so long, too!

I might be wrong but here's what I know about pathtags Pathtags are small coins that geocachers put out there. They are usually personal to the owner in some way, sort of like a signature item. I've always been told that they expect other geocachers to keep them. The owners just expect you to log the pathtag at www.pathtags.com. That website lets the owners know where their pathtags were found and keeps track of the pathtags you find.

Any chance they could be grouped by state? That would make it easier for me to check for the ones around me without having to go through them all.

28 out of 62 trackables I've released over the past couple of years are gone. So about 45% were lost unfortunately. I have released some as copies, but yeah, that ratio stinks.

Yeah, your Wobbles TB had the tracking number very prominently displayed in your photo of it. It looks like you've fixed it now so that shouldn't happen anymore. It's hard to believe there are people who spend their free time going through photographs of travel bugs on the internet looking for tracking numbers. Don't they have lives?

In that case something must be bugged. I've tried to post notes on TBs, but I'm always asked to enter the tracking number when I do so. There's a space to put the tracking code in when you "leave note", but you can just leave it blank. You can leave a note without entering the tracking code

I don't know if you use e-bay at all, but you might find a LEO coin there. There is a CSI (cache scene investigation) geocoin up for auction right now, for example. Also this one would be perfect "Thin Blue Line" from Coinsandpins.com They are inexpensive too so you could buy several. On their site they have a lot of military related geocoins. Watch though because some are not trackable coins, just make sure they say "trackable" in the description. http://www.coinsandpins.com/geotags/cheap-trackable-geocoins/thin-blue-line-tag#.UBxTZN1qb2E

Here's what I would do and both of these will give your coin a starting point. If you logged a visit to the cache where you first placed the coin, go back and visit that cache log, choose "edit" on the cache log (click on the little pencil icon), look down towards the bottom of the screen and choose to "visit" the coin there OR It would also work to place it in any cache you've found near where you placed the coin. You could do this by visiting one of those cache logs and choosing to "write a note" and log a "visit" for your coin The most important thing would be to change the date back while you are doing either of these things to keep it in chronological order.

I usually wait a little bit to give the person who dropped the coin off a chance to log it. Who knows, they might be traveling and not have access to a computer. Write a note on the trackable's page that you have it, then grab the TB/coin in a week or so if the cacher doesn't log it online.

Check out this TB I recently moved -- TB3KMZ3. It's a journal that is very obviously a travel bug and it was in great shape.

I wouldn't ask them to return it to you. Maybe you could give your friends a new tb for them to start out when they take their trip.

Try posting in the region/state section of these forums and you might find some volunteers in your area

a "THIEF" is not likely to add stolen coins to his inventory. You'd think that would be true, but this particular geocacher has coins and bugs in his possession going back years. And as I said before, LOTS of them.

I'm not sure it's fair to call these 2 cachers thieves necessarily. If you check the names mentioned, they don't have hoards of coins listed under their names. I think one has 2 coins he picked up in November and the the other has 1 coin he picked up in June. There's one geocacher in our area that if you check under his name he's listed as holding 70+ coins and travel bugs. He's stolen 3 of my personal tb's and several more that I've brought to the area and placed. He's the definition of a TB and coin thief.

That happened here once. This was a cache container: http://montgomery.patch.com/articles/bomb-squad-finds-no-danger-at-riverside-cemetery

Look at the list of trackables you've had contact with on your profile page under trackables. You should be able to find it there.

If I were you I'd wait in terms of picking up trackables, if you really are on "day one" as you say. Just to make sure you're going to keep up the habit of geocaching, I mean. I've had a few trackables go missing, picked up by people who are on their first day of geocaching. Despite all good intentions they never go geocaching again and the TB's and coins are goners. I'd write down the tracking numbers and use the "discover" choice for a while. That way you can have fun watching the Travel Bugs you find move around, and at the same time not have to be responsible for them. You can even choose to be notified by e-mail when those TB's are picked up or moved. On each trackable's page there is a choice of "watch this trackable".

This is one of my pet peeves too! I saw this sentence on the page of one of the TB's I've moved lately, and I've added it to the pages of each of my trackables that are out there traveling: "Please do not take this trackable to event caches or group meetings unless you intend to take it with you when you leave." I hate to sound rude about it to people that pick up my bugs and coins, but it's better than cringing inside every time I see one of my TB's being dropped into an event.

They could "grab" the TB from you and place it into another cache. They shouldn't sign the log as you because you need to actually visit the geocache to say you found it. If they are geocachers, they should have their own name to sign to the log. I'd make EXTRA sure that they are active geocachers too, and that they actually know what they are doing and actually want to move the TB before I gave anything to them.

I know 2 definitions "Happy Trails to You" is one "Hell to the Yeah" is the other one

Geocaching.com sells "log your dog" stuff under the "shop" tab, then under trackables. They have several colors of collars and a tag there. You can have her be her own TB!

Hey, that's funny ... I recognize this TB. I moved this up to Wisconsin this summer, box #64. :-)

These are my favorite dog tag travel bugs I've moved lately: a miniature antique gas pump that wanted to travel Route 66 (TB4JV59) a fake dog poo (TBHFZ8)

I actually tried that once because 3 of my TBs / coins have been lost at events recently. I found out that the geocaching website only allows a few e-mails (like 5 or 6) to be sent per day using the "send message" feature. That is good in some ways because it prevents people from abusing the ability to e-mail fellow geocachers, but does make it hard to realistically contact people who attended geocaching events.

There is a big difference between events and caches. In reality, if you owned a trackable, which message would you want to receive: I walked into XYZ restaurant and left your trackable on a table, then left OR I left your trackable in XYZ cache location