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CoinSwag.com

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  1. Here are the stats on the coin;

     

    Dimensions: 1 5/8" (42mm)

     

    2D/3D: 1D front/back

     

    Thickness: 5.5 mm

     

    Finish: Glass!

     

    Enameling: Hand painted colored glass

     

    Trackable: Yes, on Geocaching.com

     

    Possible Icon:

    gt32x32.gifgt16x16.gif

     

    There will also be an option for personalization up to 10 characters including spaces with no minimum order quantity.

  2. The Glass Traveler Geocoin

     

    Here is a new project we have been working on for some time, I wanted to post a few pictures of some of prototypes we made along the way. This project was made possible by a really cool glass artist Sharon in Colorado Springs, CO.

     

    Here is a picture of the first version of the coin that was made, we wanted to get the geocaching logo on there and were happy at first but the colors just did not work for us.

     

    100_3011.jpg

     

    Back to the drawing board! Sharon said we can add color its more of a process but will look better so after a few more test coins we were able to get it right! This time with four colors fused onto a base piece of glass.

     

    100_3086.jpg

     

    Now we were happy!

     

    Here is a little info on how these beautiful glass geocoins are made;

     

    The glass traveler, brought to you buy CoinSwag! These highly durable, highly collectible geocoins are made in the USA by a glass artist in Colorado Springs, CO. Each piece is unique in that they are hand made, several steps are included in making a coin as special as this.

     

    It order to create a piece of fused glass, you must be sure that the glass you choose is a compatible COE so that the glass will expand and contract at the same rate during the heating and annealing process and will produce a strong finished piece.

     

    Glass is selected, cleaned, and cut into the shape needed for the finished piece. A special glue is used to hold the colored squares onto the base glass. The glass "sandwich" is placed in the kiln and the kiln is warmed slowly to prevent any cracking of the glass. After approximately 1.5 to 2 hours, the kiln is at 1500 degrees. After checking the kiln visually for "doneness", the kiln is turned off and allowed to cool over several hours. Cooling the glass slowly makes for a very hard, durable finished product. This process is then repeated 3 more times fusing each different colored piece of glass to create a glass geocoin with a total of 5 different colored pieces of glass. This long process also ensures that the glass coin is durable.

     

    Once the pieces are cool (about 6 to 8 hours) They are washed and the edges shaped and polished on a grinder, then washed again. Once they are clean, the design is hand-painted on the front of the piece with special fusible glass paint which is made of finely ground glass in a suspension base. The design is allowed to dry, then the words on the back are hand lettered with the same paint. Once the paint is completely dry, the pieces go back into the kiln for another firing and cooling cycle.

     

    The final phase with this glass coin is to hand etch the trademark symbol on the lower right hand corner of the design, clean the pieces and pack them for shipping.

     

    The total time involved in producing one coin from start to finish is about 17 hours!

     

    Comments welcome!

     

    I think my favorite thing about these geocoins is they are made in the US and we get to support an artist in the process!

     

    Stay tuned for more. I will post pics and more details once pre sales start (here in a few days)

     

    -Jake

  3. I agree that 5 to 7 dollars to ship a coin from US seller to US buyer is high, shipping has gone up but not very much. The last increase was so small we opted to not increase our shipping fees. As stated above a simple way to not support excessive shipping fees is to not purchase from that particular seller. If you are buying from a cacher and not a store you can also contact them and see if they would be willing to lower shipping cost, never hurts to ask.

  4. We have a few international customers that make a group purchase to help save on shipping. As fuel cost rise I only suspect that shipping cost will continue to increase. As eartha said if you have a group of local coin collectors get to gether and make group purchases and have them shipped together to save on high shipping cost.

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