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Why Would You Send Out A Coin?


Puckhoundz

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Sorry if this has been covered.

 

I have only found one geocoin in my hunts and I was tickled to find it. I promptly moved into another cache for someone else to find. However it seems that most coins don't last very long before ending up in someones collection. Why should anyone go to the expense of purchasing these coins and sending them out if people dont treat them for that purpose. Their are some experienced cachers out there who are guilty of findings these coins and never returning them to another cache. I have become very disappointed in the caching community for this reason. With more and more states and organizations coming out with these coins it just promotes the "collecting" of them.

 

Ok I am done venting.

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What is wrong with wanting to collect coins? There are many people here who have made up personal coins and it is their choice as to what they want to do with them. Many of us like collecting the coins and many of these coins were made up for trading or souvenirs.

 

When our group made up our coins we knew that they were more likely to end up in collections than travel around. We still had no problem selling the entire run because people are willing to pay for something they want.

 

I treat mine as a reward for a great cache or adventure. If I leave one in a cache I dont' expect it to travel around and the chances are it won't. Yes I paid for them, but my enjoyment is in hearing from the people who pick them up and let me know what they think.

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I have several coin collections (non-geocaching) and when I learned about geocoins I thought it was great. But then I realized that it might be expected to pass them on like a travel bug and I thought, well, what's the point of that?

 

To me it seems natural to collect them. (But I have never seen one!)

 

I am considering having my own coins made, and dispersing them in caches. I would be thrilled if I knew people were picking these up and keeping them in a personal collection.

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I collect the coins but do also set them free.

 

I try to buy two of every trackable coin, so I can set one free. Until now they didn't get into collections, and I did get a lot of possitive reactions from people that did like to get the ectra icon in their profile.

 

I think it's not good to put coins that you find into your collection, isn't that stealing? someone payd for that coin. (unless it are personal coins that are made for it)

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I place my coin in a small ziplock bag with a business card that tells the finder whether to move it like a TB or to decide for themselves if they want to keep it (I vary how I do it). Both types eventually end up being collected, but that's OK.

Are you saying that when you release your coins its with the option to keep or pass??

or that you're ok with people stealing travelers? :blink:

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I have only found one geocoin in my hunts and I was tickled to find it. I promptly moved into another cache for someone else to find. However it seems that most coins don't last very long before ending up in someones collection. Why should anyone go to the expense of purchasing these coins and sending them out if people dont treat them for that purpose. Their are some experienced cachers out there who are guilty of findings these coins and never returning them to another cache. I have become very disappointed in the caching community for this reason. With more and more states and organizations coming out with these coins it just promotes the "collecting" of them.

 

And yet the majority of coins sold seem to be going to coin clubs or sold to individuals in ones and twos.

I don't care if people collect NEW coins or hunt Icons. What would bug me would be someone Stealing my traveler for a collection (TB tags and Trackable coins are NOT TRADE ITEMS. If you pick one up you move it and drop it in another cache, you do not get to keep it).

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Anything you place in a cache has the potential to be taken. If you care about it -- don't leave it. Sadly, this also applies to travel bugs (standard or trackable coin).

 

Personally, I think stealing a travel bug is pretty low.

 

For other coins, I use them as FTF's, trading to get coins I want legitimately, and as a cool "calling card". I do make mine travel bugs as well, but suspect I am being naive. Here's an example of one of my coins as a Travel Bug. It has a specific number on it and if it ever ends up in a collection or on eBay, I know that it was stolen. (and what can I do about that? - nothing, except let the person know they have a stolen item in their hands -- which they will claim they didn't know was stolen, etc, etc)

 

Geobone Travel Bug #25

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I place my coin in a small ziplock bag with a business card that tells the finder whether to move it like a TB or to decide for themselves  if they want to keep it (I vary how I do it).  Both types  eventually end up being collected, but that's OK. 

Are you saying that when you release your coins its with the option to keep or pass??

or that you're ok with people stealing travelers? :blink:

Both - If one of the coins marked solely for travelling travels to 5 or 10 caches then it has exceeded my expectations.

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I've stopped putting any real coins in caches. Instead, I put laminated copies of my real coins with the tracking number in caches so people will have something to actually find in caches to get the icon. So far I've activated at least one coin of every type that's currently trackable on geocaching.com. I like to think people will circulate the copies and not keep them like real geocoins. If they don't circulate, I'll just make a new copy and put them back out myself.

 

Right now, with a little effort, you can find every type of gc.com trackable geocoin within about 50 miles from where I'm at. Where else would you be able to do that?

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I've stopped putting any real coins in caches. Instead, I put laminated copies of my real coins with the tracking number in caches so people will have something to actually find in caches to get the icon. So far I've activated at least one coin of every type that's currently trackable on geocaching.com. I like to think people will circulate the copies and not keep them like real geocoins. If they don't circulate, I'll just make a new copy and put them back out myself.

 

Right now, with a little effort, you can find every type of gc.com trackable geocoin within about 50 miles from where I'm at. Where else would you be able to do that?

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=108232

 

Makes about as much sense.

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Not really. At least with my way, cachers actually have to find the simulated coins to get the icons. That's the way God intended things to be. It would work with real geocoins too if so many geocachers weren't greedy weasels who hoard things like jeeps and geocoins and only show them to their friends so they can get the icons.

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Well, I have held and then set free a first edition Moun10bike coin. I was told it was meant to move, so I put it in my hard puzzle cache to entice people. I also have a second edition that was given to me to keep. If I see a coin that has a goal to move, I will move it. It will likely later get kept and I might even sit there wishing I still had it then, but I would not keep one that wanted to move. I plan to make personal coins early next year (I will use my tax refund I think) and will likely use those to put in really cool caches that I find as keepers for the people who find them, or for trading. I have found that I like the coins. It is fun to trade for them and collect them etc.

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For coins that need to be moved on, a good digital pic would be a great thing to collect (along with the icon tally). Coins are great to explore on a large bright screen.

 

I have dropped all sorts of (not-geo) coins in caches, and they seem to be very popular. At first, I dropped in shiny coins from all over the world that featured animals. They were doubles from one of my collections, but they ran out quickly.

 

After that, I started dropping Alex Colville's work into caches in the form of Canada's centennial coins (a silver bobcat, and a nickel rabbit). These, too are quite popular.

 

I think instead of a geocoin, I might make a custom holder similar to ones I did for a local event. These would be for keeping, or trading, or even moving on to another area by cachers-passing-through if they wanted to.

 

animal_hunt.jpg

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I try to buy a couple of extra geocoins to drop in caches. I just put a MD and NJ Geocoin into the wild. I think people are happy to find the MD coin (NJ was just placed tonight).

 

Of all the Geocoins I have put into the wild, the only one I can think of that has actually gone missing is http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=157441 My brother, as pointed out in another thread, had some Silver USA Geocoins go missing.

 

With the MD coin, I see 5 people are even watching it. So they are trying to see where it turns up: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=199407 One of my wishes is for the coin to not go to an event. I left this coin at the event and it still hasnt moved: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=157687 but I have my hopes :ph34r:.

 

Since I also travel around the world for work, I try to drop coins off in other countries. This one placed in Singapore http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=157166 and also this coin http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=97056 On my next trip out, I plan on leaving a MD and NJ coin.

 

We also plan on placing 10 - 20 Seven Summits Geocoins around the world in hopes people do find them and do move them in caches. With my personal Geocoin, which is being made, I plan to drop at least 100 of them in caches that I visit. I am still wondering if I should make the trade items or travel bugs.

 

With more people collecting Geocoins, they will be even more rare in the wild.

 

BTW, for those looking for a .999 Silver Geocoin, I know of one cacher who has one. He says he is going to put it into the first cache he makes. He states he knows it will be stolen but wants to see how far it actually gets. Hopefully, it will move like other TBs.

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It is our intent to put at least 100 of our new f0t0m0m coins in caches. The first ones will be placed tomorrow, while we are caching in the area of the Santee event. We will continue to place them as we find caches that are interesting or milestone caches. As far as the coins are concerned, if people want to move them.... great!!, but if they want to keep them, that is OK too....

 

Jim & Karen - f0t0m0m

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