Bambi&Thumper

I'm not into this whole coin/icon collecting thing but surely sending out some sort of 'facsimile' coin is not in the spirit of the thing at all. If I thought I was visiting a cache with a geocoin in and found what amounted to a photo of one I'd be extremely disappointed. Personally, I completely agree and all the ones we've released are the real deal. However, we have this as a standby. We have the tracking numbers and photos, so if they do go AWOL, we can release a replica if we want to keep the coin running. Not sure we'd do this now though, as we have an excellent source of coins (the UK Coin Club - Thanks Team Maddy!) and so far all the cachers who've handled our coins have kept them moving - Thanks Guys!! Bambi.

Have a look at the CITO forum too - I saw something about McDonalds supplying free food/drink for people clearing up places, if you like that sort of thing There was other useful information too Bambi.

As far as I understand it, the $1.50 that you are paying (which is included in the cost of the coin/TB dog tags) is for the number and the ability to track it. Thus you can scratch the number on any bit of old rubbish and send that out instead. The only thing I would say, is if you do this make it very clear on the cache page and in the title of the "coin" what you are doing so that you don't annoy all your fellow cachers (call it simulated or pretend or something)... Personally, I'd try to make a "coin" as similar to the real thing as possible. If I were going to do this, I'd scan the coin and then print it onto some shrinky plastic to make a thin hard plastic disk. But that's just me... Bambi.

That's really good! I said laminated, since with the number of coins I've released, at £5 per tag (plus the cost of the coin) I'd be broke by now (!), but your solution is loads better! Like others, I really like this idea, but I wouldn't do it for coins. One of the really nice things about releasing coins is feeling them. Some come with an epoxy coating, but the others are really tactile, thing is, until you see and feel them, you won't get what I'm on about! Beware! Virtual coins are now banned according to TPTB. You MUST have something solid that travels about and there should be only one of them (apparently). So called Virtual TBs are being locked. Bambi. Edit: Alibags has quicker fingers than me... Sorry!

If we are about, we might be persuaded to join in and lend a hand... Bambi.

I would say a "standard" is one that is available to purchase all year round, while a "special" is one that has a limited edition - i.e. x number of coins and then that's it. "Standard"coins would include the USA coin, "special" would include the Seven Summit mentioned here as there is only 800 (I think) of each edition made and there will only be seven editions (one for each summit). Bambi.

OK, we've released loads of coins (more or less one of each icon) and so far, in our experience they get picked up much more than normal travel bugs, which is great! Concerning getting pinched... This is a big problem in the USA, but I'd like to think not so much of one here (maybe because coin stuff hasn't caught on in the way it has there, or maybe because caching isn't quite as wide spread as there, or perhaps we aren't as materialistic, or this effect could all be in my mind and it could simply a perception or be because we haven't had many coins released here up until now - your choice!). In addition, we think some of the coins "disappear" from caches because people think they are really cool trades and swap for them (which was the case for non-trackable coins/signature items). Anyhow, what we do is this. Drill a hole through them - about 2.6 mm according to the guy I get to do it (this defaces the coin, devaluing it, discouraging collectors as has been mentioned before). We then use this hole to attach a laminated label of significant size using a keyring loop (laminated prevents it disintegrating; significant size - c. 8 cm square - prevents it being overlooked in larger caches, or left in a pocket in error). This label includes details of the coin's mission, which we usually set as "local" to begin with and travel the UK after some months/a year (this enables local cachers to grab the icon if they want and gives the people in the area a feeling of ownership to try to encourage them to look after it; we also give our coins "personal names" to try to give them a little personality for the same reason). We then run a little solder round the inside of the keyring loop (available from most key cutters for about 10p each, but expect strange looks), this prevents the label "falling off". Like most techniques, this is far from falible; if people really want to keep your coin (hole and all) all they need is a decent pair of pliers, but it should discourage all but the keenest thief. While I've seen a few coins released in a similar way to this or defaced in some other way, many people seem to dislike the "wanton vandalism" that this necessitates. So another way of doing it is to laminate a piece of card (with details and do not keep info on it) and glue the coin pocket to it. In order to protect this further (those coin pockets often get quite brittle), it is then a good idea to buy some small plastic case for this to fit it - I've done this with a couple of coins we've released for others and used small business card type pocket that I bought from our local Students' Union Shop for 40p. Hope all this is some help and good luck releasing your coin - it's great fun and people really seem to get a kick out of finding a real coin in a cache, so we think it is well worth it! Bambi. PS If you need more info, drop me a line through my profile and I'll send you photos and/or sample labels as required.

That is the single most useful thing that I've heard on these forums - Only wish I'd known that before, It'd have saved me hours!!! Thanks, Bambi.

Hi, I am still looking for: Colorado Geobash 2005 GeoWoodstock 2005 Moun10bike (I live in hope!) Lighthouse #2 I have the following trackables in hand available for trade (all unactivated): Delaware EU GOWT Geocoin Club - December2005 Iowa Maryland Mt Everest Mt McKinley N. Carolina San Diego Screw Wisconsin I also have spares of a number of coins that haven't arrived yet, including some of the coin club coins, so if you don't see what you want, drop me a line through my profile and I'll see what I can do. Thanks very much in advance, Bambi (of Bambi&Thumper).

Hi, I am in search of the following trackable coins: Colorado 2005 Geobash 2005 GeoWoodstock 2005 Moun10bike (I live in hope!) Ohio 2005 Lighthouse #2 I have these trackables in hand available for trade: Maryland Iowa Wisconsin Screw Mt Everest Mt McKinley GOWT San Diego N. Carolina Delaware EU Sorry, I don't have any limited editions. I also have spares of a number of coins that haven't arrived yet, including some of the coin club coins, so if you don't see what you want, drop me a line through my profile and I'll see what I can do. Thanks, Bambi (of Bambi&Thumper). EDIT: Deals done for NY and Pennslyvania; Trades made for my Connecticut and one of my Screw coins.

I'm also waiting patiently for my 5 coins... Bambi.

I agree! Maybe they would listen if we did a survey... 99% say.... YIME'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bambi.

I am with davester on this one, dressing up a cache with a pointless hunt for clues often to end up at a crap cache is not fun. I also agree that sometimes you do not want to deviate from a planned walk in order to log a cache, which at first sight appeared to be a traditional. For what it's worth, I think part of this has been caused by the inability to place virtual caches. In the good old days (!), the setter would have sent cachers to the site of interest and asked them to search for the clue and email it to them to log it as a find. Tuppaware may not be appropriate given the location, and The Powers That Be say that the solution to this is an offset cache. Thus, there will be a prolferation of these sorts of caches. Bambi.

And helped me activating some of my coins... Bambi.

Yep, I don't like it much either. 2 Things: - Don't think it's necessary to put "USA" on the icon, I mean, any cacher who doesn't recognise the USA flag must have been living with his head under a rock! - The icon is a bit uninspired; I prefer the circular stylised flag that I saw on one of the posts, it was lovely and really did the coin justice. But then I'm from the UK, so I bet no-one cares what I think! Bambi.

We've recently realeased two EU GeoCoins (since this thread started) and have loads more to go in the near future. The first of these was very special, as it was dropped off in a cache in my Grandfather's village. It was particularly important to us, since we walked from his house to the cache, past the church where my Grandmother's funeral was held earlier this year and through the graveyard where her ashes will be interred between Christmas and new year. It was a beautiful day and we will remember it with great fondness. The second was dropped of nearer our home, with the goal of travelling about in the North East of England - Also special in it's own way, since it's our way of saying thank-you to local cachers for placing caches. On this occasion the weather was horrid! We are trying to release coins with as many of the icons as possible, so these two would be a nice addition to our release collection should we win. Thanks, Bambi. Edited to add that I've just noticed that I've already included details of the first of these somewhere above... D'OH!!

We dropped one of our EU coins (The Speckled Band) into a cache in Oxfordshire (Wonko Cache), while on a family tour to deliver Christmas pressies... An important one to us as we've done a few caches in the area and the coin was released to say thanks to the local cachers who set them. In addition, Nanny died earlier this year and this will be our first Christmas without her. So given that it was such a lovely day, it was really nice to walk to the cache through the village, past the church where her funeral was held. Bambi.

These are meant to be cheap swag, so we didn't think adding the tracking was worth it. I'm planning on leaving them on the ground when I have a DNF. --Marky If you are still interested Bambi let me know. Ooops! Dummy!!! Didn't read all that properly! Put us down for two then! Thanks!! Bambi.

Love the coin - will take three if it's trackable and the UK coin club doesn't get any... Cheers, Bambi.

I don't mind posting things to people - quite the opposite, and I don't mind standing in the post office queue thinking about my dinner/next trip to the pub either! When I mentioned charging for time, it was because I'd seen a post about a coin where a coin seller had made a comment about charging for "queue-time"... I certainly wouldn't charge for my time/effort to post stuff... Bambi.

That's funny - I was at the post office the other day and was stood in a queue for 32 minutes waiting while somone in front of me posted 11 parcels... Bambi.

Who paid? You or the person who was receiving the coins? In a swap, I assumed it was usual for the senders to pay (that way they are both encouraged to find sensible shipping costs), but what happens if the coins go stray? Who is responsible? In a sale, I guess the buyer pays, unless the postage is included in the cost of the coin. But how do you tell? Some of these coins sell out so fast that if there isn't any warning, you don't have time to ask the seller in advance Bambi.

Should I be expecting to pay just the postage? Or costs for envelopes and people standing in queues too? Is it reasonable to be charged $5 postage and $5 handling or should I just refuse to pay? Thanks for all the help, Bambi.

I've noticed that international shipping charges vary a lot. What do people think is a reasonable charge for postage from the USA to the UK so that I know I'm not being taken advantage of? All info greatly appreciated! Bambi.

The problem is that I frequently get requests for money via paypal. A trick I use to check that the link is authentic, is to type in a false password the first time. If it is genuine, it will ask you to re-enter your password, if not... Bambi.