Personal Geocoins - Activate Or Not Before Trades?

[+macdonr]

I'm intrigued by the new category of personal geocoins trackable through geocaching.com. One thing that occurs to me, though, is that trading your personal coins away without activating them first makes them tough (impossible?) to track.

 

I've e-mailed a few people asking their preference / opinion, and have spoken to a couple of other local cachers, but wonder what a wider audience thinks is most appropriate. I can see the logic in having the original owner activate the coins (e.g., Moun10Bike geocoins) both to facilitate the tracking feature he/she has paid for and because they are personal rather than club or other coins, but I also see the appeal as a collector (icon or coin) in owning various types of coins.

 

Is it appropriate for the original coin owner to "own" all of his/her coins, or is it more appropriate for someone else to activate the coin?

[+hammerjane]

It wouldn't be right if you activated a coin that you are trading to another individual. You would no longer own the coin, but if you activated it, you are claiming ownership. If you want to activate the coins and track them, then release the coin in a cache and watch where it goes. I personally wouldn't trade for an activated coin knowingly. If I got one that had been activated without that person telling me, then I would be very upset, and wouldn't trade with that person again and would let other traders know what happened on the deal. It would be deceitful to activate it and then trade it. Most people collecting the coins, want unactivated coins to place in their collections. They want to be the owners, not a caretaker. That's just my opinion.

[+donbadabon]

Ditto on what hammerjane said. She has summed it up perfectly.

[+Silver Dragon]

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[+Renegade Knight]

The Motion Carries. Thanks Hammerjane

[Jake - Team A.I.]

I feel that if you are using your own form of tracking, instead of the geocaching.com site, I don't see much of a problem. Vacman's coins are what I'm thinking of in particular. He has a list of his coins that have gone out, and where they are located. I don't think there is much of an activation, as it is simply a list of his coins, and who's collection they are in. If your purpose is to track who has the coins you've sent out, I don't see a problem. Use your own listing site.

 

For coins that go through an activation process, like travel bugs or new coins activated on Geocaching.com... leave the activation to the person getting the coin. I certainly wouldn't want a coin in my collection that someone release in a cache to watch it travel.

 

I don't activate coins that I place as FTF prizes. If the winner want's to keep it or watch it move as a travel bug, that's the choice they get for winning the coin. A person trading for a coin should get the same choice.

 

Coins activated by the distributor would appear to be coins that were stolen from circulation from caches. In my opinion, most coin collectors don't like that appearance.

[+Kilted Cacher]

My new personal coins will be trackable on gc.com , and they WILL NOT be activated by me. They will be traded as 'UNACTIVATED', this way the owner can decide what to do with the coin. I feel this is the best way, and it's how I would want to receive a coin.

[+macdonr]

I appreciate the feedback. Including off-forum discussions/e-mails, the trend is about 10-2 against the idea of activating coins before distributing them, either by sale or trade. The arguments in this thread make sense to me; I wondered whether there were good arguments on both sides of the issue.

 

I suspect if I create a coin, I will only activate a couple of coins to use as personal mileage loggers, and leave the rest unactivated to be enjoyed by others.

[+nscaler]

I put out an activated California State geocoin last year in a new cache I was hiding. The first person who picked up the coin said they were going to keep it . This really irked me to no end. I have put other coins out unactivated giving the person the choice to keep or pass along. This "nice" person even put five dollars in as a trade. And of course the next cacher took the money .

I left the original cacher alone. The other also.

Activation infers:

1. Ownership - someone is watching that coin (or TB).

2. The owner does not want to know a watched coin/TB is sitting in someone's desk.

 

Rant over. I feel better having vented.

[+Renegade Knight]

I put out an activated California State geocoin last year in a new cache I was hiding. The first person who picked up the coin said they were going to keep it . This really irked me to no end. I have put other coins out unactivated giving the person the choice to keep or pass along. This "nice" person even put five dollars in as a trade. And of course the next cacher took the money .

I left the original cacher alone. The other also.

Activation infers:

1. Ownership - someone is watching that coin (or TB).

2. The owner does not want to know a watched coin/TB is sitting in someone's desk.

 

Rant over. I feel better having vented.

This problem is one we need to solve somehower. In any coin issue, some will be for traveling and some for trading with no easy way to tell them apart. Your activate the owned ones, and don't activate the swag ones is as good a solution as any.

[+Lemon Fresh Dog]

I had a great suggestion for my geobone from a fellow cacher (Ibycus) -- I think he just wants to attach the bone to his dog, but the suggestion was to add a "bump" to the geocoin (like the German coins).

 

This way, I can attach a TB tag set to those coins I want to track. This should make it completely obvious that it is intended to travel and not trade.

 

Botton line though -- folks will still keep the "cool" items from a cache. I am thinking of hiding a coin inside a stuffed animal and making that animal a Travel Bug. This way my coin will travel without anyone knowing the coin is there! I was thinking of taking this old Beanie Baby of mine called "Caw the Crow" -- I just have to cut off the mint condtion tag on the Beanie Baby....

 

 

(note: "Caw the Crow" beanie baby is worth a small fortune)

[+joefrog]

I couldn't have said it better myself.

... said the other half!

[+Shop99er]

If I were to have a coin trackable on GC, I would not activate it. That would frost my props if I were the one getting the coin.

 

On the other hand, I would (and did) log traded coins on the tracking site I am using. The site lets you "give" a coin to the new owner, or "drop" the coin in a cache.

 

Either way, I no longer have ownership of it.

[+Right Wing Wacko]

I see no problem with PERSONAL coins being activated by the owner. In fact, I would kind of expect it. When I get a Moun10Bike coin I know it will be listed on GC.COM with M10B as the owner. It's almost like a pedigree... proof that it came from who it claims to come from. It should not be logged by any one else other than the Coin Owner.

 

On the other hand, I would not activate a State or Event coin that I was going to trade. If I was going to place them in a cache, I might, but I've been known to put unactivated coins in caches as FTF prizes.

[+Lemon Fresh Dog]

Just to add more grist to the mill...

 

What about if you trade for a coin, find out it has been activated -- but NOT by the person that traded it with you!

 

What would you do?

 

Personally, I would contact the person that registered the coin, ask them if it was meant to travel or if it was okay to be collected and then either release it to a cache or place it in a little baggy forever. (or maybe place it on eBay for goodness sake!)

 

Somewhere out there in someones collection are 5 Canada coins that shouldn't be there.... Sheesh....you can just BUY one if you want one.