JoergWausW
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Posts posted by JoergWausW
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First, I'm not a coin collector. When I saw the first coins I thought about it and decided it would be too much to keep up with over time.
2011 there was the 1st European geocoin fest close to my home and of course I went there - thinking why there is no really good catalogue of coins, while they're so popular. So I started collecting information to try my own, because I like enough to look at them and collect their pictures. I posted links here once or twice to show my effords, but got only little response. So I see where this discussion is coming from.
What I discovered so far (short version without all details):
- geocaching.com posts "latest designs", meaning the last couple icons they added to their database. Those entries are basically based on currently bought tracking codes. When those will be found on a real trackable item, is a matter of time - it could need more than a year. Remints or new versions that share an older icon won't be found here. Doing research for my catalogue I found that the icon's names sometimes don't match the coin's names...
- once there was a geocoin-collection site that evolved from a "monster list" that started here in the forum. After about 9000 more or less random entries they discontinued it and it's not available anymore today.
- various other catalogue projects started and got stuck because only very few people participated. There was a wiki-project, and the latest one I found is stuck with 585 entries for quite a while now - again, it was announced here in the forum several times.
- cointracking.com started here as well, I think - as far as I can tell (I'm not a member there) it seems to suffer the same problem as this forum.
- not being a fb member either it looks like people like it as an advertising platform where you only find what is brightest/most liked and spread.
- some people keep a blog/webpage adding new information when they like it or when they are asked for it.
- if you are looking for old coins (prior 2008) this forum is, indeed, a very good pool to find what you're looking for (I'm stuck in 2007 with my catalogue so I can't say much more about later coins) - it's more or less hard to get to it, depending on the way coins got introduced here...
So far there seems to be no perfect system that knows how to catalogue coins in a perfect way AND that has proper user interfaces/databases to keep track of collections.
I really appreciate this thread's effort to get this forums back running! But I'm afraid these problems will remain:
- you have to click links to get to pictures, if there are any.
- a lot of people seem to prefer random graphic information (pictures) with one quick click over sophisticated insight that only comes with more clicks.
- the forum doesn't help to find coins topic based (I think this might be important - like owl fans like to find coins with owls...) - this only works over mouth-to-mouth (so far).
- if you have preferences the forum does not allow to be noted by mail/twitter/fb/whatever about news filtered by interest.
(When I started a topic here about what people look for when searching for coins, again, there was not very much response - so the list is mainly based on my opinion...)
I wish you good look and hope that a lot more people finally decide to really try to make things easier about geocoins.
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At the trackable's page there's just a note and a "took it" log. That means, even though the item is in your hand now, there is no log entry indicating that you ever discovered the icon (needs a grabbed or retrieved or discovered log). This is why there is no icon at your trackable list.
The mysterium is, why it ended up in your inventory after all without this kind of log. Maybe the glitch is that you posted a note and entered the tracking code(e.g. programming mistake) - or did you post a "grab"-log and changed it to a note? Shouldn't work either. The only way to get that "result" officially is to grab the item, delete the grab log and post the note and the took it afterwards. (a deleted discovered/grabbed/retrieved log should remove the icon - if someone logged, but in fact did not see the coin, that person shouldn't end up with the icon that way, I assume)
Anyway - my suggestion to clean everything up:
1)
- go to your cache log here: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=873f841b-67ee-4d03-ac0f-acffe55dd03e,
- click edit log (the pen) and just change the trackable TB20G8P to "drop off" and submit. The item is now in the cache. This way the cache owner doesn't get any new emails. The TB-owner will get a drop notification.
- you may delete the note (use garbage icon - it's not needed anymore)
2)
- go to the trackable's page http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=1451568
- delete the placed it-log you just created and your two previous log entries (so there's nothing left from you, but not for long).
- log the item and select "retrieve it from Tega Cay View", date it 10/29, enter a text that you found it here even it was supposed to be somewhere else (this replaces the note).
Result (if I figured it out correctly):
1) the cache page only shows your find log.
2) the trackable's only shows your retrieve log.
3) The person who took the item from the former cache to the cache where you found it, is now able to fill in the gap (by grabbing it from a current cache, drop it where he took it, retrieve it there, drop it where he left it, grab it, drop it back in the current cache - delete both grabs and the logs in/out the current cache - that's a little bit more than what you have to do...).
4) The icon shows up on your trackable page.
I hope this helps and doesn't take too long...
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Hello!
My "Shiny Gold Pocket Decoder Geocoin" (TB50MGQ) has a wrong icon.
It should be this:
But it is this:
Why is that?
What can I do?
Thank you and best regards
Usually the creator of a coin designs an icon and pays money to get it implemented. This was not the case for the golden ones.
There are three different items you can find in the "All geocoins" list:
Antique Gold Pocket Decoder Geocoin -
Antique Silver Pocket Decoder Geocoin -
Shiny Gold Pocket Decoder Geocoin -
In fact, the shiny gold ones seem still to be on sale, as you can see here. Maybe after giving away 25 they made a couple hundred more later and requested a new icon entry. Perhaps those decoders are different than the 25 that were initially mentioned in the forums? I don't know. Looks like there are more than 25 shiny gold ones in total.
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cache dragons or little cache dragon? cache dragons has 4 little dragons on the front of the coin, little cache dragon has a single, comic style drgon on the front?
ILYKIt's probably about this one.
Groundspeak shot out three icons, one for the regular edition, one for the black one and one for the silver one... but numbers?
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Maybe this link helps, too:
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There is an entry in the "ALL GEOCOINS"-List at the Groundspeak site, that means someone (I don't know who) ordered the coin name already, but probably didn't produce the coin yet, because of no market - so far...
List of entries (id/name):
4643 Geo-Achievement Hides 300 Geocoin
4644 Geo-Achievement Hides 400 Geocoin
4645 Geo-Achievement Hides 500 Geocoin
4646 Geo-Achievement Hides 600 Geocoin
4647 Geo-Achievement Hides 700 Geocoin
4648 Geo-Achievement Hides 800 Geocoin
4649 Geo-Achievement Hides 900 Geocoin
4650 Geo-Achievement Hides 1,000 Geocoin
For 300 to 500 hides there is an customized icon (4643.gif etc). For more hides (600 and up) it's the generic icon.
Btw: same thing applies for the finds-achievements: there are entries for every 5,000 finds, but only up to 25,000 there are custom icons, and an additional one for 50,000 finds. But everything else seems not to be produced yet.
And there is a "King Boreas 1000th Hide" and a "King Boreas 2000th Hide" coin, but these are personal coins, the first one showing his name and the outline of Minnesota on it.
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I'm kinda startled that you're worried about this case enough to advise sending the code, but not enough to write down the code so you don't have to depend on the next guy to send it to you.
You may have a point there
- but still I usually don't foresee my dependancy. If I did, I would write it down. That's me.Maybe this one is more convincing: Sending the code (in a case where the reciever has to correct something) might increase the chances that the person will take the time to do it.
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Another Suggestion: If you know the cacher you grabbed it from, you can write an email as described. AND it would be nice to provide the tracking code in it - not everyone keeps this number after the retrieve.
Eh. Actually, the better I know the person, the more likely I'm going to relish in giving them a bad time, and less interested I am in them having the code if they forgot to keep a copy of it. While I'd provide the code if asked, in general I don't consider it my job to make sure someone that should have the code actually does have the code.
My point is: I have the trackable in hand, then I log the retrieve. Another day I drop it into a cache - then I don't need a copy of the code. But: if someone takes it the same day of my drop and grabs it out of my inventory before I'm home to log --> in that case I am the one who doesn't have the code anymore to grab it back and drop it properly... I don't copy codes to paper - why should I? Oh, yes: Because I have to face the fact that it could get grabbed before I could log the drop - even if I try to be as fast as possible.
In fact, this happened to me at an event. I handed it over to someone to take it - he grabbed it out of my inventory right there... (I don't drop trackables at events - if I don't find people that want to move it along, I'd rather take them with me again, logging a visit instead of a drop).
Grabbing is silver, patience is gold... (but too much patience is off the track)
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So in this case, the polite thing to do would be to make the grab, visit the trackable to the cache it was found in so the mileage is correct, and log it into the drop cache AND be sure to explain your actions in the trackable log ("Hey, sorry for the grab but I had the opportunity to take this one to Tahiti and didn't want the mileage to get mixed up!"). Then a similar email to the cacher you grabbed it from. I'm sure they will understand.
I disagree only about "visit the trackable to the cache" - as I pointed out in (the other half of the merged thread that is now a kind of too long and maybe overseen) post #40 here - I'd still like some opinion about than one
In my eyes it is important that there is a "retrieved from" log in your name referring to the cache where you found it, so a 'dropped it' log is possible. A 'took it' doesn't provide that. But maybe my way is too complicated because there is an easier way to get the logs right?
Another Suggestion: If you know the cacher you grabbed it from, you can write an email as described. AND it would be nice to provide the tracking code in it - not everyone keeps this number after the retrieve.
If you find a trackable in a cache (like in this case!) and don't know who didn't log properly, watch the trackable and the caches (the one last logged and the one where you found it), maybe you'll learn who has to get your helping mail.
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Here are my two Euro-Cents:
SLAPSHOT made the first logging mistake: He logged a "retrived it" from a cache that he didn't retrieve it at.
Then he made the second mistake: He only "took" it to the cache where he found it.
Then, not a third mistake, but very unwise, was to write this in his log: "so it obviously hasn't been properly logged (why can't cachers get this process right??)" - the first part an unproven assumtion, the remark inadequate, when you plan to do it wrong yourself and go public in a forum.
The right way would have been (if I understand procedures correctly - I might be wrong as well):
First: decide, whether you can wait one more day or two. If yes, jump forward to 5), if not:
1) Log "grabbed somewhere else" (because that's the truth)
2) Drop it into the cache where you found it (that's what someone else did, but necessary for the next step)
3) Log retrieve from where you actually found it.
4) Delete logs 2), put the TB on your watchlist to delete 1) after the missing logs are done.
What's left in the listing is your part of reality that you know of.
Then continue:
5) Check the cache where the trackable was seen last. Read a log like "I rescued a TB from this cache" that bflentje even left there in this case.
6) If you find a log like the one in 5), contact the owner and ask nicely to log, maybe explain how to do so. If you performed steps 1) to 4) you should explain what to do next (see below).
All this probably could have been done at GZ (I don't use the app, so I don't know for sure, but if you're online, you can probably use a browser and use gc.com there).
If somebody logs later, the procedures for this person would be
1) grab it
2) drop it where you found it
3) retrieve it from there
4) drop it where you left it
5) grab it
6) drop it where it should be now
7) delete logs 1) 2) 5) 6)
(A lot to do, but necessary if you log late...)
If everybody uses correct dates and RL-things didn't happen to happen at the same day, the cache listing would look right and mileage is calculated correctly.
It should even work that way if there are several logs missing to be added later this way.
my conclusion: If you're not willing to perform those procedures (or don't know them), because someone couldn't log the same day, then DON'T grab a trackable.
Ok, that last sentence is a little bit sarcastic, because this is what bflentje did to start all this:
Don't drop a trackable if you can't log it the same day. Because someone else might retrieve it - and that's where the confusion starts, like SLAPSH0T experienced it. It may even lead to a forum thread like this... Poor him! (no irony intended)
Note: To grab a trackable and not log it the same day online is ok, if you write about your retrieve in the local logbook or (if possible) in the online log of the cache. Even if the trackable is still listed there, people are able to find the reason why it's not there anymore (if they care to read the last entries in the paper logbook/online log) - and everyone knows where it is.
You still may not take a trackable if you already know that you're not going to log it within a week...
Last thing to say: what bflentje logged after he read the logs and got upset was not ok either (see above).
Now both have to figure out a way how to fix the TB owners' online log history. Good luck!
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I forgot to mention another way:
Log with a wrong date <- will show in emails
After that: edit your log-date to the correct one within a couple minutes <- no new email, and if you don't wait too long: no "was edited by user" under your log. To keep your history clean you may want to change the log date at the cache listing (you should do that, because there may be cache owners who delete logs when virtual date and date in the logbook are not the same...), plus the log date at your trackables listing (where only you (should) care what to do and what not to do).
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Even a 'visit log' is useless to prevent others to know where you were, when someone knows the TB-code of your trackable. They just click a bookmark (or the link in a watchlist) and look up what was visited and when. The only advantage: they don't get a mail with a "took it to"-entry.
If you drop your trackable coin - as mentioned before - people can still use your history of finds in your profile. The only help would be: Don't log any cache!
Some ideas that might be more or less helpful:
1) To prevent interest you could generally start logging with a delay of several days/weeks/months (use the correct dates, but who really cares where you were one month ago?)
2) Whenever you have a reason to post a note to a cache that you didn't visit that day, you may drop your trackable, retrieve it before you log anything else, and delete both logs on your trackable's page. This way "your watchlist" gets a wrong information by email, but the cache owners don't know about the trackable. "Your watchlist" has to visit your trackable's page to see that the logs were deleted, because deletion doesn't generate a mail. And in the end, deleted logs don't put mileage on your coin, if I understand it right.
But do not(!) log notes to random caches just for this purpose, because these notes might annoy the cache owners (they get a mail about your note) and they might find out who you are, if they know this thread).
3) Log your caches without logging the trackable. One or two days later you log the same caches with a note (saying something like "mileage coin drop and retrieve - sorry I forgot when I logged this cache - will delete this note right away") with the changed date (!!). If you do this in the same order, your mileage would still be right, but one or two days off. (Annoyance and discovery who you are may follow in this case, too - by cache owners or by people who have those caches on their watchlists)
4) start a new trackable and sum up the results (or relog all found caches with notes like "I'm setting up a mileage TB. Visited... Sorry..." - stop using the old one - but the new one may be found as well and end on a watch list. I don't know whether it helps to adopt the mileage trackable to your sock puppet and adopt it back just for the time while you want to generate logs...
5) use a different way to calculate your mileage (like GSAK and/or some statistics generators...)
Don't try ways that are against the guidelines or annoy other cachers!! As said: your found history of logged caches still tells people where you were.
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I'm sorry that you were having this issue. I am not sure why that happened. If something like this ever occurs again, just shoot me an email through the contact page on the site or through my profile, and I will do my best to troubleshoot. And, as scificollector mentioned, all coins must be approved before they are publicly viewable in the gallery. That is why you got the message when your submission went through.
I'll try to get the same issue again now...
As you probably read in the other thread I'm aware of the approval process and why (probably) you want to have it.
The main problem for me was: I issued information, but I don't have any way to know, what information came through in the end.
I just sent a message to scificollector using your contact form and I got the "sent"-message together with my text that I sent. This way I know what he got.
But when I (finally) recieved a "submitted"-message after entering the new coin it was on top of the main gallery page. It would be helpful to see the submitted data then.
Now: If my data is incomplete, it can't be approved. But I can't add more info to the same edition, (can I?). I haven't tried yet whether it is possible to add another edition with the same name, providing more complete information. I guess not, because the unapproved edition is still in the system and the name column probably has a unique-flag... but that's just a guess.
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I think the most important thing will be usability: If the user needs to do to many steps and wait before his collection is in some kind of application he/she will drop out. Not every coin collector is a techy or developer :-)
Quoted this from the more general thread, because the following is too tech-y and mainly related to the project here.
I just signed up to geocoin trader and tried to enter a rare coin (that I neither own nor keep) that is listed at Groundspeak with a generic icon and one of the many "Personal Geocoin" titles. I provided the Groundspeak-id that belongs to it, but the geocointrader-system didn't accept the number. So I unchecked the "trackable"-box, left a note in the comment field and clicked "next" again. I got no error message, but the same screen - over and over (maybe because it didn't update my other inputs?). Then I did something else, and went back to that page after a while (now empty again - it didn't store the information). I typed into the comment-field, that I don't know, whether my input was delivered, and clicked "Next" again. What I didn't expect: this time I got a status report, that it made its way to approval. I don't know what information arrived there and cannot check nor update...
Now I'm curious...
I know your site is on a good way, but there are issues, that have to be fixed, before I am able to enter data. Ok, it was not a mainstream entry... but the system should be able to handle this somehow, or people might lose interest (see quote). I hope you understand this as constructive help (what I intended it to be).
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I am in the lucky position of being a php developer myself and decided to build a solution (based on a well known web CMS) for myself. Since this is not the right time and place to promote it i won't do so (yet :-) )
(... long list ...)
These are just a couple of thoughts in a random order.
Thanks for your thoughts! There are a lot of good suggestions.
-> if you try to promote another tool, be aware that it will be hard to find people to crowd it, because you have to share people with the others.
As a starting coin collector i was looking for a tool to catalog and display my collection of seekers, traders and keepers to friends and after browing the internet i came to the conclusion there wan't a single tool that met my 'simple' needs, the one that came closest to what i wanted was the geocointraner.net solution (i like a lot of aspects of it) which has a, in my opinion, huge disadvantage and this is that the added coins/editions first need to be approved. The single coin i entered, i think it was a templar one, took a couple of days to get approved.
Probably the main purpose of approval is to make sure that coins are not entered twice. Problem: it will happen, when people use different names for the same coin - imagine there are already 2000 items in the system. Try to find the duplicate...
Maybe a good solution (for trackable coins only) would be this:
1) the owner has to enter either tracking code or TB-number. The system looks up (by that number) what Groundspeak-icon it belongs to and connects the item to it. This way the item has a definite position in the system and can be accessed.
2) There should be a list which coins and what editions of those coins can be found within that Groundspeak-name.
2a) if the list is already crowded, the user picks which variety he owns.
2b) if the owner has an item that is not listed yet, he may file a name and an edition for it - if that input has to be approved, the owner should be able to wait a couple days, since he can access his item using the default Groundspeak-name. Companies do the same for the icon they bought.
This would make approving easier as well, because there are probably never more than 100 different coin editions per icon to check for duplicates. Click here to see the maximum of editions I found so far for the same icon. There would be some issues that are to be considered, but it would be too long (and boring) to post this here.
Geotrackable.info is still ongoing - Mekle's been updating the code and adding data but things have slowed down over the last several months as there's a new baby in their house taking lots of attention away from the project.
Thanks for letting me know. When I talked to him at the Block Party last year, he told me that he's pretty busy at his job alone... I'm glad he's still around.
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I think your category idea is a very good one. Perhaps it could be simplified/modified to a tagging system? People would be able to tag coins and then get a list of all tags or search by tag. What do you think?
Thanks for coming back to my post!
I'm not a friend of tag clouds where the ones shown biggest are usually (in my case) not the most needed tags (why is facebook always so big?), and most often not the ones you are really looking for (I often have to look for those in an unsorted set of similar spelled but different ones in pretty small letters...)
The main disadvantage of my system is, that it is organised as a tree and not as a directed graph (without loops)... (yes, I'm suggesting the opposite of simplification). But since I am the only one who puts keywords in my system I use numbers as tags because this way I can "intval" all arguments that go into my database, plus it prevents misspelling and too many similar ones.
The advantage over the keyword system of pathtags.com (that wellner is referring to): there are connections between keywords.
This way you might assign less tags per item (e.g. only San Francisco instead of S.F plus California plus USA) . I'd like to improve my system by recursively collect the items from the subcategories and show those as well... some day.
And: if you have to connect your tag to another one, misspelled ones can be found. Example: If someone tagged (accidentally) Anerica instead of america, there would be a tiny little tag that is hard to see. And the item is not listed anywhere near America...
So far my category tree has about 800 keywords for about 500 tagged different layouts/molds (and cachers' names are condensed on their first letters, this way I only have 27 instead of 2000 different tags (the names) with one item each... those pages have to be sorted by the cachers' names... another topic on my list. Status quo here). But maybe you wouldn't allow so many keywords anyway.
What are your plans for the problem (in my eyes it is one) that a coin with 20 different colors shows up 20 times as a search result? I don't think that people want to enter the same keywords 20 times (if they didn't enter them BEFORE they added another edition - in this process those keywords could be copied, but later?...)
I can tell you that I redid my keyword system, because I thought this one is better than the old one (that's why there are still 150 items not tagged yet...) - the earlier version (like two-dimensional tags) can be seen here. As described I decided against a tag cloud...
feedback?
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Hi,
there are a couple threads now about almost the same topic, so I thought it might be a good idea to talk about it at one place.
Here the status quo, from my point of view in Germany, not complete - and probably most likely pretty inaccurate
1) Geocaching.com provides a list of their icons. It contains icons without coins and is missing coins that are out there, because those are either not trackable or share one icon with others.
2) geocoincollection.com doesn't exist anymore, the URL is taken over by someone else now, over 9000 entries gone. Still a lot of links out there...
3) trackablegeocoins.wetpaint.com/ is a wiki-project to collect information about coins. Recent activity: almost none. Problem: consistency.
4) geotrackable.info/ was discussed here in the forum about a year ago, when there was new development. Trial phase for input of data. Only a few people volunteered. Trading features were planned. I emailed mekle recently but didn't get a response.
5) some coin stores have their archives or discontinued coins on display. Those lists are nice to have! But if the store is discontinued, the list is gone as well (like hogwildstuff.org)
currently active tools with trading options:
A ) cointracking.com is probably the oldest tool alive. Huge lists of collectors that are into it for a long time. They probably don't want to move their tremendous amount of data.
B ) mygeodb.de/ is a German database that started as a display/discovery tool. You can retrieve a list of discoverable tracking codes, if the coin owner gives you a password for his collection. Has public trading lists and a growing community.
C ) geocoincollector.com/ - you don't really know what is going on before you sign up. On the public pages you get information about the collection status of an item, nothing about the item itself but the name. Obviously that is about to change if there was a demand.
only 2 other members have agreed to have a link added to their page, and when I look at the logs, only one member is really using the site. So I'm happy to try to find time to improve the site to make it more usable for those who want to use it
This quote is the reason for this thread, because there is D ):
D ) geocointrader.net/: a lot happened here recently (after a long break), but only two people admitted in the forum that they like to perform administrative duties. Within a week, about 20 editions were added and one user. I posted suggestions for features in the related thread but got no feedback about it (am I too impatient? Or just missed?
).Probably there are more projects that I don't know.
So here are some questions:
- What features are considered successful, which ones are not necessary?
- Is there reserve, because most people don't want to input their collections in a system that might be discontinued? Or is it a lack of features?
- Should people join together for one project instead of three or more? How?
- Who is interested in such a tool at all? Especially a new one?
I hope there can be results achieved more efficiently if information and efford is put together. If there was lack of demand, ok.
My input about nice display-related features:
- There are several sites that are display-purpose only, mostly blogs or some flickr accounts. They usually just post what information they have, like newgeocoin.com - they even started an archive.
- I like the display at Danoshimano's collection.
- At last, I tried myself to start a display "tool" about a year ago here (JoergWausW). My interest is mainly a pure catalog, because my collection contains only of a couple event coins and gifts, but I like to look at the existing variety. So I started to collect information.
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Some input from here...
I spent a while thinking about how to do a database myself (and posted a year ago about it as well somewhere around here).
My motivation was not to maintain my poor "collection" of about 20 items. When I found the first geocoin in 2006, I thought to myself: "Don't even start to collect - you'll get poor" (and I think it was the right thought). My interest was rather to collect information about the beautiful stuff that was produced - I started to get more serious just before the Geocoinfest in Cologne(2011) and - part of - because of it.
I found a lot of those databases/data collecting pages in the internet - but nothing seemed to be complete, some were partly inaccurate, or (sadly) not maintained anymore.
One day I heard a girl at an event say "I like to collect coins with butterflies" - so I thought: how do you find out, what coins do have butterflies? Is there a way? Civil War, Colorado State - name any interest...
Then I came across the issue of the icons. There are icons that feature several editions of the same coin (that's the case with most of them). There are a lot of icons that feature different coins of a series of coins (like the Moun10Bike icon). Some contain even several coins that don't even have hardly anything in common (like the first Personal Geocoin icon). Sometimes different editions of the same coin have different icons (like Compass Rose 2006). Conclusion: Don't sort by icons - there are non-trackables anyway.
To make a long story short: This project featured here so far comes pretty close to what I imagined.
Anyway - I'd like to introduce the results of my poor programming skills to you - maybe there are some ideas you like enough to integrate into this project.
I just created a plain entry spot here
If you like to see what the categorization could look like with pictures I populated some images for this random page use this image link
If you see a "next" link in the top right corner, you can use it to browse through my history of stuff put in.
Some information about my way of collecting information:
In fact I do walk along the icon list by Groundspeak (you may know that the icon-gif-files are numbered, having an offset of about 135), because that way I think I get the most possible amount of coins that are listed there and kind of in order. Last week I reached icon number 600, which was introduced in fall 2006. Whenever I come across some later icons that make sense to put in, I did. If I find some non-trackable items, I put them in, too.
Therefore I think my database is almost complete if you look for Groundspeak-trackables before fall 2006.
To see all so far collected (and tagged) coins from 2006 that say "2006" on them (there are some that don't), click here.
And this page shows only one edition for each coin (e.g. not all metals)! (this is a strong suggestion for your project!)
Still, today there are 5600 icons and more than 6 years ahead of me, if I really wanted to continue...
So far I found 750 different coin layouts (molds, dies, concepts, you name what I mean) that came in about 1550 different editions (versions, metals,...).
About 500 of them are currently tagged - because of a restructuring of my tagging concept, I didn't complete the necessary "do it again routine".
I thought about asking for help with it, but the main problem seems to be to keep people helping... plus I don't have the time to learn to program an implementation for it.
Another question: Most people just want to maintain their collections. Is this kind of data pool really needed?
Be aware that my information might be wrong (there are even some editions that I marked "hoax?", because I am not convinced they exist...).
Some names I changed slightly to avoid confusion or to unify the names of a series that wasn't intented to be a series from day one...
Still I think most people would rather use a category tree than a name search - just to be sure they get what they look for... This is why I don't have a name search.
Feedback appreciated :-D
Edit for link enabeling
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Thank you for your feedback!
Right now I'm emailing with Mekle about what to do if we can mix both concept to a better one, that would be great.
It shouldn't be that people are requested to contribute the same for several websites.
More feedback on both concepts is still welcome.
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I've always been interested in geocoins, but decided not to start to collect them, because of financial reason.
Instead I thought about collecting coin information and pictures - it's free in the internet. Searching for resources I found a lot of started collections, databases, blogs and trading sites. None of them seemed to be really organized.
The catalog by Mekle made the best impression to me, but there was no news for a long time. A good idea was the trackablewiki by Forthferalz, but not very many people participate there (anymore).
So I decided to create an own catalogue with the goal to collect information in an easy way, to be as accurate as possible and to be fun browsing through the information.
After installing a mediawiki on my local machine I found out that using templates and categories might be a good way to put things into a good structure, but editing is painful because of all the links that have to be maintained.
To just offer a list of coins and pictures like the coingallery - (I'd like to know where those 9000+ pictures went, btw) - doesn't help finding anything, especially when people don't know the name of a coin - or people like to now what coins there a that show flowers, animals, or other special interest. Last week a cacher told me that she'd like to collect coins with butterflies... so how do you find out what coins there are?
To make things short: I'd like to show you my results that I achieved as a non-professional programmer. The data was collected moving along the icon numbering at geocaching.com. The status quo is at icon 403, with over 450 different coins that exist in over 900 different materials. To have an orienteering: those last coins were published in Spring 2006. So there is way more out there... (current icon >5600 in July 2012). It can't be achieved by one person alone.
In the last couple weeks I thought about how to get people to participate in collecting information. Now Mekle came out with an update about his catalog and kind of the same question. That made me hesitate about my postig and I contacted Mekle to tell him about my effords. The last couple days I put some work into getting things to run on a public webspace so I can show it to him, because I don't want to make anyone feel bad and I don't want to produce any bad feelings either. While (still) waiting for a reply about my solution I continued working on it a bit and like to introduce the slightly more improved version to everyone here and now.
My wish would be to have one working catalog in the end that matches the goals mentioned above and that is free, because that way everybody cares enough, and there is a chance to get it almost complete on a current level. I very likely won't be able to program and/or maintain a user edited database myself. But I like to get some feedback (via my Groundspeak's profile page or here in this thread.) about my solution that you can find by visiting http://www.nepomukhausen.de/Coins/index.php - here you see the categories that I chose.
Maybe some of my ideas are good enough to make it into that catalog about to come.
Some usage hints:
-> Use the links in the Tag-section to see how it is possible to find related coins.
-> There is no full-text search available.
-> Use the prev/next - links at the top to browse quickly through layouts or series'.
-> Some Layout and Edition names of coins and probably most of the Series' names are (more or less) slighty adapted to be as unique as possible.
-> To see, how it might look with some (ten) images start here (and click the next-Link a couple times): http://www.nepomukhausen.de/Coins/index.php?object=Layout&id=345 - since I don't own any picture I'm reducing this impression to only a couple.
-> More techical: Clicking the icons gets you to a page that shows all editions that are listed with this icon, but it's a dead end for now, because I didn't connect coin layouts with icons, because there are some coins out there, that have different icons depending on the material (e.g. Compass Rose 2006, Caching America,...). Originally there was an Edition display page, but it doesn't have really more information that the Layout page unless you put different images or more specific information in....
-> In the Additional Information section you find quotes from the internet including the source where and the date when it was found.
That's enough for now - thank you for reading, exploring and giving feedback!
PS: I tried my best about the language - I'm not a native English speaker.
- but still I usually don't foresee my dependancy. If I did, I would write it down. That's me.
).
Trading/Collecting/Display/Information-Tools for Coins
in Trackables
Posted
I'm bringing this one to the top again, due to current discussions in other threads and to try a new overview of 'catalogue' sites, very likely not complete.
1) user generated content, based on individual collections only, limited options to post information about coins (usually only along with the owned item)
- cointracking.com (probably the oldest site, no obvious Groundspeak reference)
- mygeodb.de (currently only in german, contains a list of Groundspeak icons, you can connect your coins with the icons)
- geocoincollector.com (very limited information on public display)
2) user generated content sites:
- trackablegeocoins.wetpaint.com/ (not very active anymore)
- wiki.ssoca.eu/Hauptseite (current german wiki project, pretty new, contains english entries)
- geocointrader.net (based on coins, referencing Groundspeak's icons, good search options, requires review before information is published)
3) sites with content generated by few individuals (or just by one), aiming at collecting information of larger set of coins, based on icon/entry in geocaching.com's trackable environment, no user interface
- geocaching.com (almost complete list of their icons, list contains dummies), no non-trackables
- geotrackable.info (user interface is on the way)
- firststategeocoins.blogspot.com (state coins, trackable and non-trackable)
- nepomukhausen.de/Coins (my own silly project, contains some non-trackables, for now you're starting with the icons)
4) there are several sites that publish information about current releases - I didn't try to compile anything complete... every seller does this, some blogs collect these information - so no list here.