DocWahala

This is great advice! See, I work with offshore drilling in West Africa, so I have 5 weeks at home, and try to stay geo-busy when I am at home. But when I am in Africa, I also like to stay in tune with what is happening in my local area. Since I've covered about 80% of everything within 20 miles, I have a few different watch lists (with 15 miles, within 25 miles, new sites). And geting to read the emails sent is great. Sometimes what a person writes in a log motivates me to want to make sure I put that one on my To-Do list. Some logs tell me what problems others are having. I even like seeing others have made finds on the ones I couldnt find. The more who do that, the more I want to get back there and change my DNF to a smiley. So Blue Duece is right, if more people would write something about the cache, the better it would be for those who follow. Thanks to Blue, I will be doing the same - I like his systematic approach, passing on instruction to the Bug owner, then the CO, then the reviewer.

When I released my first TB, I wanted to make sure it moved along. Then we released another handful of TBs. Trying to watch one or two TBs was easy. After a while, I realized I was spending a good bit of time watching the TB and watching where it was. Now, I dont watch them anymore. No, not saying I am not interested in my TBs. I just have come to really enjoy opening up my Inbox and seeing a new NOTIFY email. I might not have a massive army of tin-tags floating out there (something like 8 TBs and 9 hides). None the less, I seem to get an email from either one of my TBs or my caches about 2 or 3 times a week. So, I am going to be releasing more. To me, getting an email NOTIFY is neat. But even neater, is when I get one that has been quite for some time. The longer the silent (be it TB, coin or Cache), the more interested I am when I finally get the email. Just don't forget...the best part of the game is getting out there and making the hunt! DocWahala

Obviously, there is "cost" for generating the number, and supporting not just the server, but the staff infrastructure needed to maintain the site. TB is just one revenue stream. The OP was referring to the cost of the TB# and his comparison to the music industry is a valid one when looking at the business model. Look at the success of I-Tunes versus the CD stores. Where I am at, the brick-n-mortar store was crushed by the internet store. Now, compare the cost of the TB against the cost of a coin. The tracking number for a coin is 1.50. But to get the same "number", someone has to pay 4.50 to get that same number on a tag. Now look at the Geocoin... because of the cost, and the increasing number of muggle/noob/thieves, less and less coins are put into play. Sure, 4.50 is a lot less than 10-15$ for a coin, but what if the TB# was sold "as is"? (now, maybe buying a single TB number would be too cumbersome, but what if you could buy a smaller block? Coins have a minimum, what if Groundspeak sold TBs in smaller blocks as well? Say 20 #s for $30?) The previous poster who stated there would be an increase in the number of TB # sold if the price was reduced is correct. Volume sales is what allowed WalMart to outpace Sears and JC Penny. And where are those stores today? They are no longer the economic giants they were 40 years ago. Personally, I would favor that which not only lowers the economic cost, but increases the number of TBs out in the wild.

Well... I'll spare my thoughts on the "why blame the FTF" - the water in that swimming hole is already had the silt kicked up. The original question - has this happened to you? No. Then again, I only have 10 caches, and most have a number of visitors. So, if it gets broken, it gets broken. I'll deal with it when it does happen. But I did have a funny story none the less. There is a little area of woods I know about, has a nice little trail, just right for a car to turn in on. Doesn't go very far. Seems I got a log entry from someone who was parked in the lane, and while he was searching for the cache, someone in a telephone company van got really upset. Turns out, the cacher was parked in the driver's secret "pull over and get a nap spot", because when he finished the figure 8 loop on the country road...that's what the driver was doing. ZZZZZZZzzzzzz! DocWahala

Nah, I dont think Ill be able to rig up surveillance cameras. Because then I'll want to make it a web cam, which I'll have to monitor all day. And then we'll have camera theives. LOL. Seriously, talking about surveillance.... has anyone ever stopped and realized there is surveillance? And that the coin thieves use it? I'm talking about the Notification system. It's one thing to have the State page list the last 5 or 10 caches placed, but why keep the section which lists TBs moved? Dont even need to be Premium member to use it. Just watch it and when a GC.com says a coin has moved, pretty sure the coin thief is moving out too. Sure, I understand that at one time knowing a TB had just moved into your area might have motivated some geocacher to go find it, but those days are long gone. It's an open invitation to thiefs. Make them work for that coin! In fact, get rid of the icon listing on the cache page. Am not saying get rid of icons. You find the coin, you get the icon. But why put a big red flag on a cache just to say "skip all the other caches, Im the one you want for your e* store!" Yeah...make it harder for coin thieves (Or like my 5 year old calls them... "Lex Luther"). It wont completely eradicate coin thieves, but it will make it harder for them. Imagine that...they would have to be like the rest of us...visiting dozens of caches, just to get that surprise of ACTUALLY finding something. My original response says the only proxy I wont move is the one which is not listed on the description as proxy. And you're right... once they buy the coin, they can do just about anything they want with it (except buy a cup of coffee with it.... or pay for another gallon of gas! chuckle). The one thing they can't do, is call it a coin. It's a proxy. It's not the real thing. (no matter how much I call a gallon jug of water "proxy", it's still water, and not gasoline). There might be one more thing a person might not be able to do..and that is release the proxy in the wild, and still show off the real one for letting others discover it. If that was the case, I am pretty sure GeoSpeak wouldnt have a problem with me buying one TB # and using it 20 times for the 20 matchbox cars I want to release. But then again, maybe I am wrong and GeoSpeak actually allows that. Just remember...even if I purchase a music CD, somewhere inside the cover, it does say I am not allowed to make an electronic copy of the artwork. (wink) DocWahala

Want another laugh? I said I would be giving cache specific missions for the coins I release; and whenever the first one comes in, I will send it out to GC1VT4E. Just hope you don't mind seeing a hole in the coin. But if it gets there, it's yours. DocWahala

That would suck. I've never released a proxy, but I think that putting proxy in the title is a good idea for this reason alone. I wouldn't want anyone getting accused of anything like that. It's another reason that I really like people who pick my coins up to take pictures, and why I take a ton of pictures for people whose coins I'm moving along. This part you lost me on. These comparisons do not work. Your GPS being expensive would be a player if you were handing it over to me to move to the next cache for you. The gas isn't something that's being trusted to other people. These are all things that are designed for YOU to use. The coins you're putting out there for EVERYONE to use. I certainly don't trust everyone the way I trust me. Yes.. the gas I use is based on a certain amount of trust. My trust that the person has actually set out a cache. My trust that the CO isn't leading me out to someplace where the game is less than honorable (I think about the CO who decided it was "funny" to place an ammo can in the center of a thirty foot circle of cactus with two inch barbs). I guess what I was trying to respond to is the typical "coins are expensive" thread. There's a lot about geocaching that is expensive. No one says we have to buy a coin, but to decide expense is the one reason you wont release a coin, ... well...I go back to a very true statement: "Dont release something you are not ready to part with." Rather than argue about Proxy and coin thieves....what we should be doing is trying to find ways as coin-loving community, to discourage coin-thieves. Perhaps Geospeak should be doing more, because if not, eventually, the only people who will buy coins, are the coin collectors. And when that happens, why go through the extra expense of putting tracking numbers? As I see it, drilling a hole is just another great way to discourage coin thieves. There's plenty which could be done.... it is just a matter of discussing it. (I even have a list of ideas. Eventually, I'll post it).

i don't see much difference in defacing a coin and sending out a heavy duty proxy. would rather keep a nice undefaced coin at home and send out the copy. defacing a coin is blasphemy! speaking of theft, as soon as i saw this cache come up i thought "uh oh" - sure enough, two logs later a dnf. listing a coin vault cache is a sure invitation to coin thieves. i hope the cache is just "mis-hidden" and not stolen. but looking at the difficulty level i fear the worst. there really isn't any point to releasing a real coin any longer. GC2P2RQ thanks for the site number - checked it out, but it looks like the most recent log is a Find. Perhaps the DNF was just that..a DNF. I guess another lesson for me to learn from checking out the cache - someone with 8,000 finds might know how to make a good hide.

I agree... a coin is a coin.... a proxy is just that..a proxy. It can have a wood chip, a pocker chip, even a lead slug...it is still not a coin. If I find a proxy, but the description doesn't say it was a proxy, I'll probably be leaving it. Not saying I am "against" proxy. Just dont want some coin owner to add me to the list of suspects of folks who made the switch. Yes...coins are expensive. So is the GPS unit. Or the I-Phone to put the geo-app on. To say nothing of the 3 dollar a gallon gas, which is still going to climb. Let's face it... geocaching can become an expense hobby. So are season tickets to my favorite basketball team. Only difference, I would much rather be participating, and not just a spectator. So, after some serious thinking, I finally made a decision. To keep from going way too far, I have a budget. $30 a week. If the coin is $10 and under, I will buy 3 each time I buy coins. One for me, one for trading and one to let loose in the wild. For the more expensive, since I can only buy 2, I just drop the wild-release. I also agree with you - drilling a hole is maybe the best way to keep the coin in the wild. And today, I had a chance to order coins. Because I was making up for the weeks I was in Nigeria, I was able to order 10 different coins. (three of each). And I still have some more money in my burn-budget, so I will be ordering some more sets. When they come in, I will be following your advice. I will be drilling a hole in the coin, and yes, I will be deliberately defacing the coin. And no...I dont consider this blasphemy. What I do consider bad form is keeping the coins which are supposed to stay in play. To give my coin a little bit more of a chance to survive in the wild, I have also decided to give it a very specific mission. By this, I mean... I will just pick someone from the Forum who has more finds than I do, and make one of their caches my final mission. (I had someone from California in mind, but have since found all of their caches have been disabled). Another thing I will be planning on doing, is always using the more difficult caches as drop sites. I think most coin thieves are just sitting back, watching the notification list and looking for easy spots. If they want to steal a coin.... then work for it. No PNG, no 1/1 or TB Hotels. Head out and be ready to bushwack. I bushwacked to get there, coin thief, you can do the same.

True! But now it is 2011 - and still no pinned thread? Perhaps TPTB feel the Forum should only be used to describe new coins being designed, or listing Trade requests. As for trying to promote actually using a tracking coin AS a tracking coin..... maybe there is no interest?

Wow - this is the second coin I've read about here for finishing it's mission. The first was for one of the missions. It's great to see it happen, especially after 2.5 years of travelling and getting caught out in the weather. I am wondering if having a more specific mission increases the chances of it staying in the game. Can't say one way or the other. But one thing I am pretty sure of - there have to be more than two stories about successful missions. What if there was a permanent thread for capturing these stories? Maybe something which would be pinned. There is a pinned thread for trades - which is fine, but is trading coins the only reason the coins exist? More should be done to celebrate success and even promote keeping the coins in the caches. Anyone have any thoughts on this? DocWahala

No pets. However, I do have a five year old son, and he is a handful! DocWahala, guess he won't be able to sign up for this mission. (Big Frown)

*Sniff* Would have loved to take a shot at the cointest, but alas, I have no way of editing the picture. Still, it is a very nice looking coin! Good luck to the rest of you! DocWahala

Name: DocWahala Date pass received: Date pass sent: Coins took Coins put into pass: Hope I am not too late, if not, please sign me up! Email sent. DocWahala PS - If you do an international, I wouldnt mind signing up for same. We might be able to work something out - I rotate five weeks in states, 5 weeks in Africa, and I have a friend who does same, and he geocaches in England.

My choices: -- Black Nicel -- Ant Bronze -- Ant Silver -- Ant Gold Very nice looking. Will be wanting to add this to my wish list. DocWahala

Will be watching this thread - some of the coins have caught my eye. Even as activated, I'll still be interested in a few.

That's it... I am going to have to get up to Columbia! Now...I just need to come up with a good "excuse" that the wife won't see through.

Even though I am nowhere near SF, I am going to keep this one in mind. I have quite a few friends who own hunting camps (hint hint). Before reading this, when I would think of "extreme", I was always thinking scuba and rappeling. Will now file trees in that dark corner of the mind. DocWahala

Recently, I had a conversation with my wife about Geocoins. She's fine with my wanting to collect coins, but she also reminded me there are others out there who enjoy finding the coin. And I can completely identify with RasCar66 - I know what it's like to take my son to a cache, thinking there might be a coin, only to find it isn't there. One thing we have stopped saying is "oh, it's been muggled". Now, we talk about "Lex Luthor". Who is Lex? He is an imaginary cacher, who watches the alerts and leaves his house when he finds out a coin has been moved. He is the king of coin thieves. But my son, WahalaKid says if he ever meets Lex, he will ask him to be nice and put all the coins back in the ammo can, he's not being very nice. (Laugh). True, we all should remember "Never release something we're not ready to say goodbye to". Which for me, is "Truth 01". Truth 02 - "Everyone enjoys geocaching, and everyone enjoys it for diferent reasons." (Some are coin/TB hunters, some just want to collect icons, others want the numbers, and some want to see new places) Truth 03 - "I won't dictate how someone else chooses to enjoy the game" (If I buy coins and choose to release, doesn't mean everyone else should be doing the same. The only exception to Truth 03, is Lex Luthor. He's not being very nice). Ive watched the threads and see lots of different reasons for not releasing coins. But at the end of the day, when I buy a new issue, I buy three. One for my collection, one for trading, and one for releasing. Something I will be planning on doing different - when I release a coin, I am going to give it a mission for moving it to a specific cache. (I am just going to pick someone random and send them a PM, letting them know they have a coin to watch. Alright, doing that, I will also be attaching a laminated card. Will explain this is not for collection, and that it has a specific mission. Might even try to find some art work about coin thieves (I seem to recall seeing a picture a coin designed with coin thieves in mind). Why do this? Because yes, the more the game grows, the more likely someone new will find the coin, and either think it is SWAG, or just not know what to do. As for the one who chooses to keeep the coin, I am going to add a PS - "hope your transmission drops out when you are driving to your next coin show". (Laugh). And before anyone lambasts me, remember, I am not saying every coin bought should be put into play. That's a person's own choice. And yes, buying coins is expensive. But so is caching in general - money for the GPS, money for Premium membership, and most expensive ... gasoline to drive, drive and drive some more. Especially when you have to go beyond 30 or 40 miles just to spend a day caching. Ah well.. hope everyone has a great day, and may your next cache found be the one which you find something special! DocWahala

I really enjoyed reading this post. I agree, this reaffirms my belief there are many, many, many cachers who understand and honor the mission request. I wasnt an active cacher in July when this thread started, but I am sure I would have joined up had I read it. And today, I am glad Penny-&-Kona bumped this thread. Because it ties into a conversation I just recently had with my wife. See, I've become more active with purchasing coins. Yes... I am quickly becoming one more coin-head. To keep myself restrained, I keep to a budget. Now, when I was discussing this with my wife, she reminded me of something very important. As much as I like collecting the coins, I also get a big kick when I find a TB or even a coin in the cache. And my wife asked me... if you buy the coin, and dont release it, am I not impacting another player's enjoyment of the game? So... after some time thinking about this, I decided, that when I do buy a new coin issue, I am going to buy three. One for me, one to trade, and one to release (1-kp/1-trd/1-rls). And because of this thread, and seeing that 1 coin made it through, I have decided, I will do the same. Yes, I am fully prepared to say good bye to the coin when I drop it into the wild, but I would like to give it a fighting chance, and maybe increase it's chance of making it by having a very tangible mission. So, moving forward, when I get ready to release a coin, I am going to just randomly pick someone who's post made me smile, pick one of their caches, and make that the mission. Why not? I get a kick out of letting the coin go, and maybe it will get to where it needs to go! Who knows...maybe more of us will want to do the same. DocWahala

First, I want to thank Yanagi for allowing us to continue. As for the African tribes, I am only familiar with those countries which have an offshore presence. Not so much with the interior countries, or the savannah countries. What I do know, is the Nzimbu (shell coin) is only seen with the traditional ceremonies. In Nigeria, if we're not paying with Naira, we use Dollar, Euro, Pound. But my friend Prince Chidi, once told me the villages and tribes still honor the hereditary leadership. So, there is the Federal governmet, the State Governors, and the Tribal King. (Keep in mind, in Nigeria, there are over 300 tribes). He told me the Nzimbu (shell money) is no longer used, except as ceremonial tribute (which still takes place, and not just for ceremonial purposes, but still as legal entities recognized by the government). Now, about the currency "costing" too much - I never said anything about paying for the bills. I might not yet be able to play "Mystery Coiner", and any coins I would send out are not bound to be exciting, but hey! if I can put a few bills in an envelope and it makes someone smile, then it's worth the time and effort. Just send an address to docwahala@yahoo.com And if anyone else is interested, just let me know. Now.... back to the GREAT cointest thread!!

Will be watching for this one - will probably get the usual three (1-kp, 1-trd, 1-rls). If my laughing this hard when I saw the post is any indication, I'll be busting a gut when the actual coin comes in and I finally release one into the wild. DocWahala

Email sent! Will be watching this thread to see if anything gets posted here. DocWahala

Will have to count me in for three. (1-Kp/1-Tr/1-Rl). Will be watching for more news on sales date. Love watching folks take the coin designs to new heights. DocWahala

Like others before me, I too might not be able to qualify for this cointest as I now have more than 5 coins in my collection. None the less, because I believe by the end of 2011 I will be one more experieced/addicted (you choose the word) coin collector, I thought this thread would be a good place for me to introduce myself. My name is Mike, and at work, I'm known as Doc Wahala. If anyone knows Nigerian pidgin, Wahala is another way of saying "trouble". Laugh. No, I'm not a trouble maker, but a big part of my job is to look for ways to prevent problems, so when I come on board, and when I finish my audit, my guys usually say "No wahala, we be done next tomorrow". Alright, who am I? I am the Safety Engineer for one of the drilling companies in West Africa. I pretty much have to be ready to operate anywhere between Ivory Coast and Namibia. I love it. Wouldnt trade the job for anything. I work 5 wees on, and I take 5 weeks off. So, imagine how much time that leaves me for geocaching? It is like being semiretired, I tell you! And when you are 43 years old, and have a 5 year old and a 2 year old, its great to have not only a great way to get outdoors, but one which is educational as well. I cant thank everyone involved in geocaching enough. You put up the caches, you spend time keeping them maintained, and make this a great sport. So, from someone who travels a lot - a big THANK YOU to each of you! DocWahala