Droo

Don't sweat it Doc. Just delete those logs that are obviously virtuals.

Yup, 2 weeks is what the guidelines say. Granted if you have the owner's permission to keep it longer then it's between you and the owner.

If it's of value to you even if only emotional send it some other way. Trust the USPS if you really want it to get there. Too many geocoins are lost every year to send out anything with any meaning to you. Forgive my debbie downer attitude.

Geocaching.com is not the only site with a tracking system for wayward travelers and the proliferation of signature items (sigitems) makes keeping track of what's what more challenging. Not all that's round that was found in a box in the woods is a geocoin. That's why trackable geocoins have to have certain markers and one of them is that it says on it "trackable on geocaching.com", "track on geocaching.com" or some such variant. What it sounds like you have there is as others have pointed out... a sigitem in the form of a wooded nickel. It's swag to be traded for with something of equal or greater value. Enjoy....

Firstly one must never post tracking numbers online... they are meant to be secret or only available to those who have seen or have the coin in hand. Anyone can come along, use the tracking number and cause havoc. There is a TB# on the travel page that can be used to reference the coin so you can send folks to the travel page without giving them access to moving, grabbing or messing with the tracking of the coin. In this case it's TB45CH0 But back to your question. The coin's tracking page shows that you have grabbed it and is in your possession. There is no need to do anything more than write a note or drop it off. Do you know how to do that? If not go to the Play menu and select Find Trackables and in the Geocoins box click on How to log a geocoin. Easy peasy.

A travelling geocoin with a travel page that you can log your finds to is owned. The name of he owner is right near the top of the page. Even if marked as missing it still belongs to the person who released it. The collectible check box has caused more confusion than it's worth. I suppose the owner could check it and allow the first person to find it to take it home and never see or hear from it again but that's rather rare.... why not just leave an unactivated coin in a cache so the first person who finds it can grab it as swag? At $10-$20 a pop why not just leave money, right? Anyway, 2 weeks is about the max one should keep a traveler.

No.... traveling geooins belong to someone, someone who bought or traded for or even designed and minted it and released it for others to enjoy. To collect a traveling geocoin that belongs to someone else is to steal it and to earn you the label of geocoin thief... or the lowest of the low.

They could be the property of a cacher who lost his/her collection coming or going to an event. Coins aren't ALWAYS meant for travelling, only when the owner chooses to release them. As CF30 said check if they are activated and note if they are registered to different owners or the same one. If it's different owners you can look up the last logs for each coin and they should be "in the hands of" so-and-so cacher. You can look up that cacher and tell them what you found. Same goes if they are owned by the same person.

Yes but you're grounded for a year after that. Seriously... no, you can't do it but must ask for the help from the Grounspeak Lackies. Only they have the power and the get out of jail free card.

If you don't post the drop into a cache before another cacher finds the cache, grabs the coin and logs the grab it was essentially not taken from the cache but from another cacher. Someone else got the coin and logged it away from you before you could log it into the cache you dropped it in. Happens all the time if you don't log coins drops in time or if someone was just on the trail minutes after you and was faster on the ... grab. EDIT TO ADD... My mistake, I came to a wrong conclusion from the OPs description of events. Thanks to TriciaG's research it appears coin is inadvertantly logged into a DNF cache by the OP. Where it actually is only the OP can know but in order to place it there OP needs the tracking code to move it. OP could email coin owner with the cache it was actually dropped into so they could redo the system data entry or just wait and hope a cacher finds the cache and the coin and logs it in properly.

What trackable information did you use as there is none in the photos. Typically wooden coins, known as wooden nickels were personal signature items - sigitems and non trackable. But things got a little complicated a few years back when a wooden geocoin was approved that was trackable. The best way to separate the trackable from the non-trackable is to look for "trackable on Geocaching.com" or "track at geocachig.com" stamped into the coin. It's a mandatory condition from Groundspeak for approval into the tracking system.

A coin's goal or mission statement is not an order for finders to do what you'd like them to do... it's a request, a wish, a desired intent. The finder is essentially going to do what they choose, there is no rule that states they have to do what you say. Relax, enjoy the journey. If you wanted the coin to get to France in the quickest and most direct way possible the postal service is there to assist you. If you want it to piggy back on cachers' adventures it's going to take a very round-about and circuitous route. The worst thing a travelling geocoin owner can do is fret about the direction of travel a coin is taking... even in a race... 'coz you have no control over the outcome and will drive yourself crazy thinking that you do.

That's very unusual for a tracking code to begin with 000. Some will have sequential numbers after the tracking code, as in PCABCD-1234. Just ignore the sequential part. Also 0s look like Os, 1s look like Is, 8s like Bs, 2s like Zs, 5s like Ss etc. so use a magnifying lens to make sure.

Movement will be detected and shown when the coin is dropped in another cache - I'm not sure about "cache visits". Each cache is a waypoint and it takes going from one waypoint to another to generate distance and direction, i.e. movement.

There is no such database. Coins are made by all manner of individuals. Some are commercial enterprises while others are just personal explorations to trade or play with. Since it is the individual coin maker/store who decides on the number of editions there is no registry they submit to for the collection of such information. You'll have to ask for specific information here on the Forums or reach out to the coinmakers of interest.

California? Texas? Missouri? Oklahoma? Or Get Your Kicks?

If you're going to keep the coin longer than 2 weeks it may be a good idea to "visit" caches with it as that keeps the owner involved as they will get an email about the coin's activity. I don't believe it's in the guidelines but good protocol is to not keep a coin longer than 2 weeks. Have a great summer.

I'd rather get the notifications of "visits" than none at all. Sure it's irksome when *JoeCacher* keeps a traveller for over a year but keeps me pacified with regular visit notices but what's my option? To yell at him for not following guidelines? Been there, done that and nothing changed. People are gunna do what they wunna do and no amount of kvetching on the forums is going to change that. This is a volunteer activity. You volunteer to place caches and you volunteer to release geocoins and as a volunteer you get what you get, not what you want. Especially from a bunch of strangers. And lastly there is no enforcement of the guidelines. The only thing a coin owner can do is delete logs. But if someone with a warped moral compass finds one of the coins you left unattended in a tupperware box in the woods there is little you or anyone can do about what they end up doing with it. You can hope a less deviant person finds it and returns it to proper circulation but aside from prayer and hope you're powerless. Moral of the story - do not leave valuable items you do not wish to lose in tupperware boxes left unattended in the woods.

I've head of geocoins made of clay, glass, wood and porcelain but never 'card'. Are you sure they are "trackable on Geocaching.com"? In order to be that has to be etched, stamped, imprinted on there and easy to read. Good luck.

Really? A thread dedicated to encouraging the illegitimate use of the tracking system? What's next, logging finds to caches without actually finding them?

Once you've activated the real coin and start using its tracking abilities the proxies must die. Multiple trackables being tracked on the same tracking number is very frowned on by Groundspeak and will result in the freezing the tracking number for good. Just delete the logs and send the cacher an email apologising that you are the new owner of the real coin and the proxy is no longer valid and you would appreciate it if they tossed it in the trash.

Log it to an unknown location. If someone finds it they can log it back in to a known location.

Groundspeak does not have a problem with it, and in fact encourage it. Interested , please explain where you know this to be true, as I haven't been able to find an official stance on the subject. I agree. I don't believe Groundspeak "encourages it". Their job is to maintain the site, provide a small semblance of quality control for cache listings and approval for objects that are going to be stamped with their logo and tracking codes to wander in their system. Everything else is user directed. If cachers want to create crappy caches.... it's up to them. If they want to steal or muggle these caches - who are they, Groundspeak, to stop it? It's not Groundspeak's fault that geocoins are stolen, mislogged, not logged or lost.... that one is all up to the cachers in the field. And that's us, baby.

The current value is what a buyer and a seller agree to in exchange for it. Currently on Ebay there is a seller offering similar coins at, what I consider, outrageous prices. Someone is clearly paying them so to a degree one can value them that high. On the other hand it may take a while for a buyer to come along to pay that much so compromises are made for a more timely sale. What those compromises are depend on what the seller needs and what the buyer is willing to give. Not all sellers have the same needs and not all buyers can give as much as others. No Kelly Blue Book on geocoins I'm afraid.

All you need do is contact every coin maker, designer, client who ordered a coin to be minted everywhere on the globe and have them submit the info you're asking for and then catalog it. Eazy peezy, right? The desire for such a database has been around for a long time but the willingness to put out the effort, free of charge, to compile such a catalog (did I mention free of charge?) is hard to muster. A few hardy and generous souls have tried but how do you accumulate information from coiners who have moved on, have not saved or kept their minting information, are burned out and don't care to participate? There are no government grants or even Foundations who would fund such an effort. But if you can find the money to do it I'm sure a lot of folks would be grateful once you got it accomplished but, unlike Facebook, finding a way to monetize it and support continued efforts to maintain and add to the database will likely prove to be a huge challenge.