Jump to content

Alaska Geocoin - Gold Leaf Version


Ladybug Kids

Recommended Posts

Just when I though I was done with accepting orders for the Alaska Geocoins and placed the final brass and silver coin order, I received a "surprise" package in the mail from the mint. The mint's artist prepared a 24K gold leaf overlay version of the silver coin to see what cachers would think. The gold leaf is applied to the moose and the rim of the one ounce 0.999 silver coin. I am going to talk to mint about also overlaying the year on the coin. The coin will be edge stamped with the tracking website and be given its own serial number like the silver and brass coins.

 

If a minimum of 50 of these coins are ordered, the mint will produce them without charging the normal artist fee. The coin will sell for $42 each, packaging, shipping, and insurance included.

 

Please PayPal to ladybugs@alaska.net with "Alaska Gold Geocoin" in the subject line. Include your caching name, real name, and desired shipping address if different from your PayPal address.

 

Cachers who wish to pay via check or money order should send an e-mail to ladybugs@alaska.net to place their order and mail their payment to:

 

Mike Malvick

975 Crocus Way

Fairbanks, Alaska 99712-1355

 

If this is too "over the top" and we don't reach 50 coins, all funds will be refunded. We tested the waters on several fronts on this project, so if the water gets too hot or too cold, we'll happily back off.

 

Please place your orders by Monday, August 1, so we can fast track this final phase of the project and get on with important things like hiding and finding more caches (not to mention yardwork before the snow flies).

 

In advance, thanks for your continued support of the Alaska Geocoin project.

 

goldmoosesm.JPGAKCoinCacheSM.jpg

Edited by Ladybug Kids
Link to comment

It looks good, but the extra gold really isn't worth the extra money. The coins we already paid for are collectable. That's part of the point. Some groups will run their production several times and some once. Guess which people hold in higher regard? The company should not make extra coins, nor should they have extras available for their employees to sell on eBay. That happened to another coin.

 

I'm sure someone will bite though. When my time comes I'm going to have to remember to tell the coin company to leave it alone when we are done with the coin.

 

They should have asked you before they ever came up with that coin. I think you can tell how I feel about it. It should of been done from the get go, and I probably would of ordered one. Now It's just cheapening what I did purchase.

Link to comment

yowwie... never thought I'd say no to another geocoin, but unfortuately I'm a bit over my head these days as it is for coins. Think I'm going to make a point not to collect super limited edition coins (unless the coin is extra special to me personally), eventually a line has to be drawn.

 

Good luck on this one though, I have one of the brass ones and it's a very well done coin, lots of detail.

Link to comment

Renegade Knight makes some good points in his post and I'll try to respond to them because I'm sure others may have the same and/or other issues.

 

First, and this wasn't in RK's post, but some may wonder...this is NOT an attempt to make "more" money on the project. We shaved the project costs so closely that we actually ended up losing some money on each brass coin and made some money on each silver coin, so the project is showing a net of about $50 so far. The gold leaf coins are priced with a similar margin. There is a running joke at The Alaska Mint that if this were "The Apprentice," I'd be fired for not making any money since the geocoins are priced at 1/2 to 2/3 of what they would sell them for retail.

 

Some groups will run their production several times and some once. 

The "second" run on the Alaska geocoins increased the total brass run by about 100 coins (8%) and the silver run by about 50 coins (20%). This helped push the project into the black (barely, see above). When we kicked off the project in March, there was some negativity about the $5 price tag on the brass coin, but since then there have been several other state coins that have been priced higher than that and people have scooped them up. In retrospect, the coins could have been priced higher and the run limited. We'll know better what to expect in terms of demand and true project costs next time around. There will NOT be yet another run of 2005 brass or silver coins.

 

The coins we already paid for are collectable. 
The gold leaf coins will have their own number series beginning at #1, so I hope that doesn't diminish the value of the other coin series.

 

They should have asked you before they ever came up with that coin. 

The Alaska Mint and I actually did discuss a gold leaf version back in April and I told them to go ahead and make a sample and I'd see if it would fly. Once the onslaught of orders for the brass and silver coins hit, I simply forgot about the gold leaf version until I got an e-mail saying that the sample coin is on its way.

 

Now that it's clear there is strong demand for state geocoins, the next Alaska Geocoin project will have design, options, and pricing lined up before going public. Many thanks to all of you who patiently supported this project as we felt our way through it.

Edited by Ladybug Kids
Link to comment
I still havent gotten my coins from teh first run yet!  :laughing:

Personal reply sent via e-mail...

 

Not to mix up threads, but since it was brought up here...

 

Coins that went to Canada in the July 14 shipment were reported in BC and AB on Friday, July 22, so hopefully the rest aren't far behind.

 

Please let me know via e-mail or PM if anyone else out there is missing their coins that shipped on July 9 or July 14. Follow the links on the Alaska Geocoin Ordering Page to check on your shipping date.

Edited by Ladybug Kids
Link to comment

The original AK geocoins are good enough for me. I mainly buy geocoins with the intention of placing the coins in a cache or trade for other geocoins. I would find it extremly hard to leave a 42 dollar geocoin in a cache for someone to stumble across by accident and not realize what it was. Worse, how would I trade off a 42 dollar geocoin? (most geocoins cost about 5 dollars) . I do a lot of collecting with action figures and such and have come to know that usually the orignial version of a action figure is more sought after compared to the silver plated anniversary version of the same action figue (just using a example here).I'm not saying a gold version is a bad thing I'm just saying its not for me. I'm starting to fear that there will be to many AK geocoins out in the geocaching world which will ruin the trade value of the coin.

Link to comment

Hmmmm.... I want one.

 

However, there is a bit of a danger here. I "collect" geocoins and would like to have a collection of most of the geocoins that exist. It adds a fun dimension to the hobby and I get to look at the coins on those days when my obligations preclude me from caching (far too often, but soon my youngest children will be able to accompany me)

 

The danger that I have seen in other hobbies is that the prices become inflated as folks start creating many, many variations of the same product. Version A, B, C, etc, etc. Invariably, some of these special editions are exceptionally rare, expensive and hard to come by. This becomes a little demotivating for folks without the resources to buy the rare editions etc.

 

Which brings me to the idea behind a geocoin. I collect them, but still see them as cache items as well. At $42 per coin, I am unlikely to place one in a cache. If I did buy one, it would be part of my perminant collection, but wouldn't really represent something I "could" have found in a cache.

 

Oh well, maybe this is all pretty philosophical in the end. It is a very pretty coin, but I think I will actually pass on this one. (I did order multiples of the bronze and even the silver -- so some of these will actually be placed in caches -- just not the gold one!

Link to comment

What would it take for them to drop the price to $30?

 

Gold leaf is cheap enough to where you can buy it floating in some booze. Stamping the coin is a fixed cost, silver is at 6.98 an oz now which is far less than the 15 buck premium already built into the silver coins. They could drop the price to 30.00 and still make more money per coin than the basic coin.

Link to comment

Good points by all (Cav Scout, Lemon Fresh Dog, Renegade Knight, et. al.) and I appreciate the continued constructive feedback. I think this discussion will help future coin project leaders decide what to offer and perhaps help develop a general philosophy about geocoins (e.g. droppable vs. collectable).

 

I know I went out on a limb on this coin especially at this late date, so good, bad, or indifferent feedback is all valuable.

 

Regarding price: The $42 covers the base silver coin plus gold onlay (which is applied individually to each coin), the edge stamping and serial number stamping (requiring two passes for each coin at The Alaska Mint), air tight capsule, velvet box, postage, insurance, and packaging. The Alaska Mint sells similar nongeocaching coins for ~$60 in the airtight capsule and velvet box but without any shipping, so in effect cachers who buy this coin are getting it at the wholesale price, just as with the brass and silver coins.

 

I don't have a vested interest in this given that Alaska cachers (nor I) are not making money off this project and offering the coin makes more work for the devoted family who tolerate my late nights and early mornings on the computer and fellow cachers who help address and pack envelops. Whether we make the 50 coin minimum or not will help set the bar for future Alaska and other state coins in the area of collectables as opposed to droppables. This is all uncharted territory, so it's kind of fun and scary at the same time!

Link to comment

Good point re: collectibles.

 

Certainly as a collectible, this is item well within a reasonable cost.

 

I'm probably going to come across as naive -and this is bound to happen - I never think of myself as a true "collector" of geocoins. More of a trader. I buy to get trading inventory and to drop in caches I like.

 

My fear (soon to occur I think) is that soon coins will be produced exclusively as collectibles and not trade items. with this would come the inevitable "catalog of geocoin values" In which an original Moun10Bike will fetch $100 while a lowly (XXXXX) is a mere $2

 

Maybe that is the direction things are going.

 

that said, the coin is very pretty and I'll go ahead and Papal you for one or two(changed my mind)

Link to comment

I see potential for state and local caching organizations to use the higher end coins as door prizes for meetings and recognition awards for local caching leaders. I've got a multi-cache in the works for which an Alaska Gold coin will be the FTF prize as a thank-you to all the other local cachers that have made the past year so much fun.

 

I also see the higher end coins as still being tradable for coin multiples. For instance, a cacher might be work out a trade of an Alaska Gold coin for something like a complete set of the three German geocoins or a complete set of Calgary coins. This might also be particularly useful for starting collectors who don't have a trading inventory to work with.

Link to comment
I couldn't pass up the chance for a "lucky coin"....this will greatly improve my chances of actually finding a cache...right?

Can't guarantee that, but your swag bag contents will definitely be enhanced and ready for the ultimate "trade up" opportunity :(.

 

By the way, I'm on the road through Wednesday night for work and our IT department locks us out of our personal webmail accounts, so I'll acknowledge payments and get a web page up by Thursday night.

 

Okay, back to actually earning a paycheck. :D

Link to comment
..I know I went out on a limb on this coin especially at this late date, so good, bad, or indifferent feedback is all valuable....

Good to see you are keeping an open mind. My two cents is just that. It should be lumped into the entire pool of opinions and it's not personal.

 

Idaho just started talkinga bout a 2006 coin (again) and people do have some stronger opinions now that they have coins and know what they like and don't like. It's going to make the job harder for the new coin project managers but they also get to learn from hard won experience.

Link to comment

I just got back from a cruise and found several of the gold and silver coins for sale at a lot less price Granted they didn't have the same back but I feel the mint ihas seen you coming. Your paying for a standerd die they use and one you have already payed for and all they are doing is putting gold leaf over the Moose. Sorry the price is to step for me. Loved the country hopefully be back soon.

Link to comment
I just got back from a cruise and found several of the gold and silver coins for sale at a lot less price Granted they didn't have the same back but I feel the mint ihas seen you coming. Your paying for a standerd die they use and one you have already payed for and all they are doing is putting gold leaf over the Moose. Sorry the price is to step for me. Loved the country hopefully be back soon.

Both dies were custom cut for the Alaska Geocoin, paid for by me, and I own the rights to them until Alaska forms a geocaching organization. The original clay model for the Denali side of the coin is pictured on the the Alaska Geocoin Webpage.

 

Please confirm that you saw the 2005 State of Alaska and Moose side of the coin in shops during your trip. I am going to the mint on Wednesday and can address that issue if it is correct. Are you thinking of this moose? MOOSEtn.jpg?

 

The mint does have some silver medallions for $16, but they are older coins, don't come in an airtight capsule and display box, and don't have the custom tracking url and serial number of the edge of the coin. The standard price for their silver medallions is $35 and their gold leaf medallions is $60 as indicated on their website. Another possibility is that you may have been seeing brass and nickel coins. The mint sometimes has to put those coins on a scale to tell the difference between brass and gold or nickel and silver, depending on whether the coin has a proof-like finish.

 

If you have other information you are willing to share with me I would appreciate receiving it via e-mail or PM so I can follow-up with the mint in the morning.

Edited by Ladybug Kids
Link to comment
I am holding out for the solid gold version with the platinum leaf pattern and jewel encrusted rim.  :(

Sorry, this is it :(. I want to go back to geocaching rather than database management, order taking, and envelop stuffing :(.

2006 is just around the corner :( . We need you get started on the new design now. The final product was spectacular. Congratulations on a well done project.

Link to comment

Thanks, guys :(!

 

I needed that after last night's 1/3 caching evening. I can't believe it was too dark to find a couple of micros at midnight :(. I think Anchorage is getting shortchanged on the daylight because RLTW and I cached until 2:00 a.m. in Fairbanks just last week.

 

Here comes winter!

Link to comment
Thanks, guys :(!

 

I needed that after last night's 1/3 caching evening. I can't believe it was too dark to find a couple of micros at midnight :(. I think Anchorage is getting shortchanged on the daylight because RLTW and I cached until 2:00 a.m. in Fairbanks just last week.

 

Here comes winter!

We're loosing about 7 minutes per day. Ahhh sleep, here I come!

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...