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Transmogrification Of The Geocoin Hobby


Hugh Jazz

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It's my observation that the geocoin hobby has morphed from a travel-bug hobby into more of a coin *collecting* hobby.

 

The personal geocoin can in many cases now be thought of as a special class of signature item rather than a travel bug.

 

I'm not saying this is good or bad, just what I've observed. And yes it might be obvious to those of you who are heavy into collecting them. But I haven't been paying that much attention until recently I guess, when I happened to lay my eyes on a few (hundred) at an event.

 

Anyway I think it's fascinating what side-hobbies and side-activities geocaching has spun off.

 

Comments on the travel-bug'ness of geocoins versus collectable'ness are on-topic.

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I've only been at this for a little over a year, but I've always considered personal coins to be signature items, trackable or not. Even when Moun10Bike & USA geocoins were about the only traveling coins out there, I never found one actually in a cache, even if the cache page said it was there. The one USA coin I released disappeared with the first finder, less than 2 weeks, zero miles.

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If moun10bike hadn't made his both collectable and trackable, I'm not sure the trackable part would have taken off, but maybe it would have just the same even if a little later.

 

They have always been signature items though organization coins can't be called signature items. It's the commercial coins that have me puzzled. People buy them even though they can't keep up with the ones for geocachers and by geocachers.

 

It will be interesting to see where this goes. A few months ago I had delusions I could collect them all. Now I'm going to settle for a subset and most all the rest is potential trading fodder for the few.

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If moun10bike hadn't ... (clipped)

Yes! That's the problem right there! It's all Moun10Bike's fault! It was his idea! He got us addicted to this geocoin-crack, and we need to surround his house with torches and catapults and demand that he step forward and promote responsible collecting! Where are his offers of 12-step programs to stop the addiction? Where are his public service announcements and petitions for government funding to help create halfway houses for the most severely addicted? Where is the responsib...Oh wait, what's this?

 

A M10B v.3 coin in my mail? ;) Oooooooh....pretty.

 

Uhm, uhhhh...nevermind. Got my fix.

 

There's nothing to see here, move along. :D

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If moun10bike hadn't ... (clipped)

Yes! That's the problem right there! It's all Moun10Bike's fault! It was his idea! He got us addicted to this geocoin-crack, and we need to surround his house with torches and catapults and demand that he step forward and promote responsible collecting! Where are his offers of 12-step programs to stop the addiction? Where are his public service announcements and petitions for government funding to help create halfway houses for the most severely addicted? Where is the responsib...Oh wait, what's this?

 

A M10B v.3 coin in my mail? :D Oooooooh....pretty.

 

Uhm, uhhhh...nevermind. Got my fix.

 

There's nothing to see here, move along. ;)

 

And yet another awesome speech from the Yime himself, OH and some grreat back pedaling also :D !!

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Same could be said for the following:

 

"It's my observation that the (insert hobby here) hobby has morphed from a (insert hobby here) hobby into more of a (insert hobby here) *collecting* hobby.

The (insert hobby here) can in many cases now be thought of as a special class of signature item rather than a (insert hobby here).

I'm not saying this is good or bad, just what I've observed. And yes it might be obvious to those of you who are heavy into collecting them. But I haven't been paying that much attention until recently I guess, when I happened to lay my eyes on a few (hundred) at an event.

Anyway I think it's fascinating what side-hobbies and side-activities (insert hobby here) has spun off.

Comments on the (insert hobby here) versus collectable'ness are on-topic."

 

stamp collecting, benchmarking, barf bag collectors, scab collectors................

 

:D

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It's my observation that the geocoin hobby has morphed from a travel-bug hobby into more of a coin *collecting* hobby.

 

The personal geocoin can in many cases now be thought of as a special class of signature item rather than a travel bug.

 

I'm not saying this is good or bad, just what I've observed. And yes it might be obvious to those of you who are heavy into collecting them. But I haven't been paying that much attention until recently I guess, when I happened to lay my eyes on a few (hundred) at an event.

 

Yes I think thats a valid observation... Hey, isn't 'traveling bug' like the opposite (or something) of 'collecting'? Not thats it wrong, just amusing that a collection is trackable :).

 

As for the personal coins/items I guess I always thought of them as collectable items. Someone would make them whatever and leave them in caches as they visited. The item usually wasn't tracked, it just ended up whereever with whoever, if the personal leaving them had a special goal in mind they would have attached a TBtag and sent it off on a mission.

The bizarre thing to me is that not only are some of these new personal signature coins trackable, but some people seem to sell/resell most of a run outright . And then keep the remainders for swapping... so these things (travel bug? signature item?) are trackable but rarely travel in the normal sensue, and few seem to end up in placed in caches. (Which I understand becuase they're too costly to be leaving everywhere but it's starting to seem like geocoins have little to do with geocaching :))

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The bizarre thing to me is that not only are some of these new personal signature coins trackable, but some people seem to sell/resell most of a run outright.

I checked with one site and they wanted something like $200 to do a die setup (front/back) plus approx $2.50 per coin, up to 300 coins. And that didn't include the extra frills like sequential numbering. So we're talking around a grand just for some caching signature items. And I don't think this is an unusual rate for the coins.

 

So yeah if/when I make my personal geocoin I'm going to have to sell off all but about ten or so, or my wife will have to start looking for somewhere to hide my Hugh Jazz corpse.

 

:)

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So these things (travel bug? signature item?) are trackable but rarely travel in the normal sense, and few seem to end up in placed in caches.  (Which I understand becuase they're too costly to be leaving everywhere but it's starting to seem like geocoins have little to do with geocaching :))

 

We are trying to reverse this trend by buying and importing trackable coins to release in the UK. In an effort to prolong their travelling life, we bash a hole in them and stick them on a keyring loop (with a "Don't nick" and goal label), which is soldered shut. Not fool proof by any means, but we have three out and more in the pipeline (sitting in our caching box or still suffering the tagging process). I'll let you know how we get on...

 

Bambi.

 

PS Sorry for going off topic, but if anyone could sell/swap us any of the trackable coins we don't have on order (primarily Alabama, Colorado, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania or Tennessee) please drop us an email...

 

Edited to add: Sadly, we can't affort to do the same with all the personal coins out there, but if people want to post us activated coins (like KSWader did recently), we will do the same with them on their behalf and release them here.

Edited by Bambi&Thumper
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The bizarre thing to me is that not only are some of these new personal signature coins trackable, but some people seem to sell/resell most of a run outright.

I checked with one site and they wanted something like $200 to do a die setup (front/back) plus approx $2.50 per coin, up to 300 coins. And that didn't include the extra frills like sequential numbering. So we're talking around a grand just for some caching signature items. And I don't think this is an unusual rate for the coins.

 

So yeah if/when I make my personal geocoin I'm going to have to sell off all but about ten or so, or my wife will have to start looking for somewhere to hide my Hugh Jazz corpse.

 

:D

Yea I realize they cost of fives buck and up each... but I guess I miss the point of making a 'signature*' item if your not really using them as a signature item?

 

*An object used a trade item in caches, that are meant to be identified with a specific geocacher (or group of geocachers). (from GeoLex)

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Here in Finland geocoins are still like travel bugs.. I don't now anyone who actually collects them here and I'm happy about that. There is much more fun to place the coins to caches to make people happy than just keep them in closet for colecting dust. But I guess there is not much to do in North America anymore. There is no point of placing coins to caches if they will get stolen in very short time. Thats quite sad :ninja:

 

Anyway thats my just my humble opinion..

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Here in Finland geocoins are still like travel bugs.. I don't now anyone who actually collects them here and I'm happy about that. There is much more fun to place the coins to caches to make people happy than just keep them in closet for colecting dust. But I guess there is not much to do in North America anymore. There is no point of placing coins to caches if they will get stolen in very short time. Thats quite sad :lol:

 

Anyway thats my just my humble opinion..

I recall looking at Moun10Bike's Geocoin Maps and noticing that one of the very few legitimate circulating Version 2 was in Finland. (I don't see it on the map anymore)

 

I really don't think "transmogrification" happened much since I joined Geocaching last year, since most Moun10Bike Coins were already in hands of cachers and USA Geocoins, for the most part, were circulating quite happily in my area. The latest Geocoin craze was fueled by collecting, not by tracking. Right now, a local cacher (nielsenc) is doing his best to encourage Geocoins to travel again. :D

 

Keep in mind that we have politicians promoting "ownership society" so it's no surprise that people feel strongly about collecting on this side of the Atlantic. :ninja:

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Yea I realize they cost of fives buck and up each... but I guess I miss the point of making a 'signature*' item if your not really using them as a signature item?

Yeah I guess that's what I meant by transmogrification. The sig item side-hobby used to be done solely or mostly through dispersal of the items (coins or otherwise) in caches. Now it's gone directly from cacher to cacher, and not even mostly from cacher to cacher at event caches, I'd say most of the trades happen via paypal and postal service. That's different. It's less about geocaching than it is about collecting items related to geocaching.

 

Not saying it's good or bad, just an interesting trend on the side-hobby.

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Here in Finland geocoins are still like travel bugs.. I don't now anyone who actually collects them here and I'm happy about that. There is much more fun to place the coins to caches to make people happy than just keep them in closet for colecting dust. But I guess there is not much to do in North America anymore. There is no point of placing coins to caches if they will get stolen in very short time. Thats quite sad :unsure:

 

Anyway thats my just my humble opinion..

I recall looking at Moun10Bike's Geocoin Maps and noticing that one of the very few legitimate circulating Version 2 was in Finland. (I don't see it on the map anymore)

Maybe some North-American cacher offered big money for that coin :anibad:

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I'd agree with the fct it's kind of side stepped from geocaching, sort of a spinoff. Still, doesn't dissuade me from getting my personal coin minted. I liked the idea of a personal coin because it'll be something that lasts, maybe long after I'm gone, not sure if it'll be thought of as much in 100 plus years, but maybe if someone ran across one them, at least maybe they'd scratch their heads for a minute and wonder who I might've been :D

 

Given the cost of coins though, I can understand why they don't end up in caches too often. Seems more fitting to have a cheaper sig item for day to day caching, perhaps a wooden nickle? I'm considering getting a batch of those made too.

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There is no point of placing coins to caches if they will get stolen in very short time. Thats quite sad :D

 

This is the reason that the UK coin can have your name etched on it. I thought that might discourage people from taking them from caches and keeping them.

 

One cacher is having "Stolen from xxxxxxx" on his. :D:D

 

Alex.

Edited by SlytherinAlex
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