Ashwolf65

Right. You have only to distinguish between creating and selling. It's the difference between cooking something for a loved one and taking her to a high-end restaurant. It's the difference between MacGyver and James Bond. What I'm trying to say is that it's a question of taste. Very few people like both tourist tokens and smashed pennies. And as I have mentioned earlier, the Penny Smashers category has well over 3000 entries already, 3773 to be exact. Nobody would like to sort through them all to find the ones he needs. I must say I'm disappointed. I have thought that the concept of tourist tokens would be more popular among the members of a site that's travel oriented. As far as I'm concerned, you can close this topic. PS: Could you explain to me why there are 50 (!) different categories containing the word RESTAURANT? Aren't they very similar in the aspect of someone serving you food and receiving money in exchange?

Yes, you are absolutely right.

Not really. The tourist tokens (also called medals or sometimes coins) are coin-like metal disks, 30-40 mm, produced usually by an official mint, but without nominal value. Their design is dedicated to a popular tourist attraction or event. Some of the most elaborate are real miniature artworks. Anyway, they are beautiful souvenirs from the holidays. They do not take a lot of space and will last longer than postcards or brochures. You can usually find coin- or card-operated automates that distribute them somewhere near the tourist attraction, but sometimes these machines are hard to find. The idea was to help others locate them by posting the exact coordinates, opening times, type of medal, and so on. Just like the "Penny Smashers" category, that already has over 3000 entries.

Yes, and a very good example at that. They have a dedicated site, complete with maps and locations. Only 1 - 2 kilometers off, usually . I recently visited Strbske Pleso, in Slovakia, and it took me almost two hours to locate the coin automate. Finally, I found it with the help of three different people - the first one didn't understand me, but gestured for me to stay put, and came back with an English-speaking person; That one understood but had no idea that such things existed, much less where were they located. He left, too, and just when I was losing any hope, he came back with a third guy who didn't speak English but was living there and directed me to the entrance of a little restaurant in front of which I had walked three times. So I guess accurate GPS coordinates plus a word of advice from those who have been there already would help a lot. The image is from GW Coins site.

I have noticed a category dedicated to "Penny Smashers" or elongated coin machines as they are called. Would anyone be interested in a category listing the locations of the distributors of tourist tokens or medals? They are very popular in France (Monnaie de Paris) and Poland (Zlota Polska), but unfortunately the maps on the official sites are far from accurate. In Poland I had to turn back almost two kilometers from the place figuring on the map. I have found the distributor only with the help of a local. In Paris this spring I only managed to find more than half of the machines in the places that I have visited. And there were other token distributors from other producers that you can only locate by chance. I think the tourist tokens make for great souvenirs of the places I visit and all the friends that started collecting them cannot stop. If there are more geocachers and waymarkers that feel this way, maybe we could help each other by publishing the exact locations, availability, times, prices and so on. What do you think?