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"geocaching The Appalachian" - Series Preview!


gridlox

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Introducing the "Geocaching The Appalachian" Geocoin/Geopin Series.

 

The Appalachian Trail is trekked by thousands of hikers every year. Although the Appalachian Trail is being used by thousands, there are not that many in comparison that make the entire trip in one fell swoop, but it is usually done in stages. A lot of times, doing it one state at a time. Originally, I was going to produce one coin to commemorate the Appalachian Trail, but then decided since a lot of the hikers do the Appalachian Trail in stages, why not do a coin to designate each state!

 

During my research on the Appalachian Trail, I also found out that many geocachers that enjoy hiking on the Appalachian Trail have placed caches adjacent the route, in addition to many awesome virtual caches on the trail itself, to draw non-hiking cachers out onto the trail to introduce them to what they are missing.

 

So, starting with February 2006, I am producing one coin a month to commemorate this grand hiking trail of the Eastern USA. Starting in Georgia and continuing as if we are on our own little trek up the Appalachian Trail through all 14 states to it's finish in Maine. Then to commemorate our little journey, the 14th & final coin, to be released in March 2007, will have the entire Appalachian Trail designated on the final coin.

(Note: Coin 2, to be sold March 2006, will have both Tennessee & North Carolina on the same coin since the AT follows the state line boundary through a majority of that section of the trail)

 

All of the coins will have the same front "Geocaching The Appalachian" design, but the back will have a different design(see pics below) designating the states that the Appalachian Trail runs through as it goes from Georgia to Maine with the mileage of each section designated on the coin!

 

The coins will be trackable on www.geocaching.com and the "Series" will have it's own icon & tracking number prefix ( AT0000 ).

 

There will be 1000 of each coin produced, with "700 Antique Bronze" and "300 Limited Edition Antique Silver". Not only will the Limited Editions be a different finish, they will be made with a better finish, Imitation Hard Enamel.

ALSO, The LE's will NOT be sold individually, but as a part of a set that includes both the Standard & the LE coins.

 

Also, we are having a pin with a variation of the coin design produced at the same time as each coin. In addition to the Standard pin of the front of the coin and there will also be one new pin each month to coincide with the design on the back of that month's coin.

 

The first coin is in production at this time and will be ready for sale by the end of February.

Once the coins are in-hand I will post a link to the coin's website to be able to purchase them.

 

Gridlox aka D-man :blink:

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Specs for the coins & pins are as follows:

 

Geocoin

  • Antique Silver and Bronze Combo - $15.97
  • Antique Bronze - $7.57

  • 42 x 3 mm
  • 700 Antique Bronze
  • 300 Antique Silver LE with Imitation Hard Enamel

This will be the standard front on all of the coins:

 

--Antique Brass--

 

AT-Front_AntiqueBrass_webart.jpg

 

--Antique Silver LE--

 

AT-Front_AntiqueSilver_webart.jpg

 

This will be the basic design for the backs of the coins with the states changing monthly:

 

--Antique Brass--

 

01-AT-AntiqueBrass_Georgia_webart.jpg

 

--Antique Silver LE--

 

01-AT-AntiqueSilver_Georgia_webart.jpg

 

Geopin

  • $1.99 each

  • 1" x 1mm
  • Antique Bronze

There will be one pin for the front of the coins and then as each coin is produced there will be a pin coinciding with that month's state

 

--Pin for the Coin Front Design--

 

AppalachianTrail-Pin-CoinFront.jpg

 

--Pin for each month's coin (First month "Georgia" shown here)--

 

01_AT-Pin_Georgia_Web.jpg

Edited by gridlox
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Man this is GREAT. I have been in contact with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy to see if I could use their logo... but it looks like somebody already beat me to it. I would be interested in helping to design a coin for the VA or NC portion of the trail. Thanks for taking the initiative!

-Bosley (Greensboro, NC)

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I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this yet, but the Appalachian Trail is actually part of the National Park System, therefore no caches are allowed to be placed there. Of course, portions of the trail run through other parks and such where geocaching is allowed. But I suppose if we have a National Park series of geocoins, why not an Appalachian Trail series too. I like the design of the coin, by the way.

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I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this yet, but the Appalachian Trail is actually part of the National Park System, therefore no caches are allowed to be placed there. Of course, portions of the trail run through other parks and such where geocaching is allowed. But I suppose if we have a National Park series of geocoins, why not an Appalachian Trail series too. I like the design of the coin, by the way.

 

That was one of the things I noticed when doing the brief research for the geocaching aspect of these coins is that "for the most part" actual physical caches were hidden on properties and parks adjacent to the actual Parks system properties, and that caches that were on the parks system properties were virtuals.

 

I've got a cousin that has hiked the Georgia, & sections of the Tennessee/North Carolina part several times and is wanting to do the whole AT in sections over the next 5-6 years. He's been on several of my caching hunts with me and seems to take a mild interest in it. So, I started looking into seeing how many caches were on the AT, if he were to want to make that a part of his future treks.

 

Plus my interest(addiction :ph34r: ) in Geocoins gave me the idea to do a coin for the AT. And like I said in my post above, seeing as a good majority of the hikers that do the whole AT do it in sections, I decided to do the individual states one at a time.

 

I figured one a month would make them more affordable for people.

 

Since a few of you have expressed an interest in pre-purchasing the whole set at one time and just wait for them to come in as produced, I will approach the minter who is handling all of the sales and shipping on this "little" project and see if this is an option that they would consider. (Stay tuned)

 

Thanks for all of the positive comments on the coins!

 

One the site goes active there will be previews of the up coming coins as I put the finishing touches on each design.

 

D-man :blink:

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I'm glad it was pointed out the caches are not allowed on the Appalachian Trail. There are caches along the route however, that are not on the trail. The trail is a corridor and sometimes runs through private property with landowner permission. It is quite narrow in some areas. If they don't allow caches, I would be surprised that they'd allow the logo usage for a geocoin.

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I would be surprised that they'd allow the logo usage for a geocoin.

 

As far as I could find out there are only two commonly used logos for the AT

atlogobig.gifat_logo.gif

 

I did search around to see if they were copyrighted and as much as I could tell they both are in the public domain. (There are numerous hiking clubs that use both as basis for their own logos)

 

Even so, I did use the second one as a pattern for the coin just because people would have a familiarity of it.

But there are noteable differences that I made sure to change on my design(Just in case of copyright infringment). Different fonts and text on the surrounding band and the AT in the center is much bolder than on the original logo. Plus with the addition of the GC logo on the coins, the ammo box on the pins and the variation of the hiker element, I think that there is enough difference in the two that there is no infringement intended.

:laughing:

 

D-man :)

Edited by gridlox
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There is a geocacher or rather a group of geocachers in NC who had been in touch with the AT Conservancy, perhaps he/she/they will see this and add the information that obtained from the ATC.

 

I will not say who it is and will leave it up to them to add to this topic further.

 

Here are the logos that were in consideration... We were actually going to give any proceeds to the ATC for trail maintenance in exchange for the use of their graphics and trademark logo "Join the journey".

 

ATC.JPG

 

AT-NCplate.jpg

 

We had just received the first email back from ATC in Harpers Ferry WV when Gridlox's thread popped up.

I thought the ATC logo looked pretty cool... and it seemed like a good way to make a contribution to the trail maintenance effort.

 

In any event, there will be coins that commemorate the AT. :o

-Bosley

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Here are the logos that were in consideration... We were actually going to give any proceeds to the ATC for trail maintenance in exchange for the use of their graphics and trademark logo "Join the journey".

 

ATC.JPG

 

I like this image a lot! So is your group just producing 1 coin design? I also love the idea of the money generated from the coin sale going to support trail maintenance. Please post a separate thread on the coin(s) your group is in the process of creating. I'm interested in seeing the coin design and most likely purchasing a few.

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Here are the logos that were in consideration... We were actually going to give any proceeds to the ATC for trail maintenance in exchange for the use of their graphics and trademark logo "Join the journey".

 

ATC.JPG

 

I like this image a lot! So is your group just producing 1 coin design? I also love the idea of the money generated from the coin sale going to support trail maintenance. Please post a separate thread on the coin(s) your group is in the process of creating. I'm interested in seeing the coin design and most likely purchasing a few.

 

The coin would be just a 1 coin design.

We don't officially have approval to use the logo yet, but the folks at ATC were quite receptive to the idea. Maybe the thing to do is to start a new thread once we have approval. In light of the new AT series of coins, we wanted to make sure we didn't flood the market with AT coins and not be able to finish what we started.

Edited by bosley
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I'm lost.

 

This is a set, and each coin is also a set that has the regualar and LE. To get the LE you have to buy the set, but is it the series set, or just the subset of one coin of the series?

 

Sorry for the delay in replying, we were out of town most of the day yesterday.

 

This is a SERIES.

 

There will be 14 different coins(designs). One for each section(state) of the AT. With the two exceptions being the 2nd coin which will combine Tennessee & North Carolina (the majority of that section of the AT runs along the state line boundary of the two) and the final coin which will have the entire AT on one coin.

 

One coin will be produced each month for 14 months beginning this month (Feb 06), with final coin being in March 07. This is to make the series affordable to those who could not otherwise be able to afford them as a whole set.

 

The following is the planned production schedule of the coins in the series.

Feb 06 - Georgia

Mar 06 - Tennessee/North Carolina

Apr 06 - Virginia

May 06 - West Virginia

Jun 06 - Maryland

Jul 06 - Pennsylvania

Aug 06 - New Jersey

Sep 06 - New York

Oct 06 - Connecticut

Nov 06 - Massachusetts

Dec 06 - Vermont

Jan 07 - New Hampshire

Feb 07 - Maine

Mar 07 - The Complete AT

 

As noted in the original post there will be 1000 coins of each design produced. 700 Standard Antique Bronze & 300 LE Antique Silver.

 

The LE's will NOT be available as an individual coin, but only through purchasing the COMBO of one standard and one LE.

 

There are two trains of thought behind the decision to offer it this way:

 

1.) Most people that buy the LE's usually buy a standard edition at the same time to add to their collections. This simply lessens the chance that they will miss getting one or the other "if" by chance they sell out very quickly.

 

2.) While it is an unfortunate & "rare" occurance, "suspicions" of LE hording have been vaguely suggested on previous coins offered for sale here on the forums. While we are leaving the sale of the coins open to the buyer to purchase as many of the coins that they want, by making the LE only available by purchasing the COMBO of 1 Standard & 1 LE, we are hoping that this will deter this from possibly happening with our coins.

(Do NOT contact me wanting to know who{I don't know} or on what coins I think this occured, I will not reply)

 

You do NOT have to buy the whole SERIES to be able to buy a LE Combo.

 

In case there is any confusion on the whole numbers availabilty issue:

1000 Coins Total of each design will be produced.

300 of them will be the LE Antique Silver, but only available in the Standard/LE Combo which will reduce the number of available single standard coins by the same 300.

Leaving only 400 standard Antique Bronze individuals available for sale.

 

Multiple options are being considered at this time as to ensure buyers that want the entire SERIES will have the opportunity to get the entire SERIES with out fear of missing one in the future due to inability to order when each becomes available for sale. I will post when we have finalized our decision on how to handle it. (Probably later today or tommorrow :cool: ).

 

-Dwayne- aka D-man :anicute:

Edited by gridlox
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There is a geocacher or rather a group of geocachers in NC who had been in touch with the AT Conservancy, perhaps he/she/they will see this and add the information that obtained from the ATC.

 

I will not say who it is and will leave it up to them to add to this topic further.

 

Here are the logos that were in consideration... We were actually going to give any proceeds to the ATC for trail maintenance in exchange for the use of their graphics and trademark logo "Join the journey".

 

ATC.JPG

 

AT-NCplate.jpg

 

We had just received the first email back from ATC in Harpers Ferry WV when Gridlox's thread popped up.

I thought the ATC logo looked pretty cool... and it seemed like a good way to make a contribution to the trail maintenance effort.

 

In any event, there will be coins that commemorate the AT. :anicute:

-Bosley

 

Don't let my SERIES stop you from making your coin! Please go ahead with your plans! :cool:

 

If you do, I would like to have a few to add to my collection, PLUS a few more for a special fund raising project I have planned of my own for the ATC at the SERIES completion.

(Not sure exactly how it will be constructed yet, but it involves displaying of the whole SERIES set along side of a map of the AT, and a sale on that "E" place.)

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There is a geocacher or rather a group of geocachers in NC who had been in touch with the AT Conservancy, perhaps he/she/they will see this and add the information that obtained from the ATC.

 

I will not say who it is and will leave it up to them to add to this topic further.

 

Here are the logos that were in consideration... We were actually going to give any proceeds to the ATC for trail maintenance in exchange for the use of their graphics and trademark logo "Join the journey".

 

ATC.JPG

 

AT-NCplate.jpg

 

We had just received the first email back from ATC in Harpers Ferry WV when Gridlox's thread popped up.

I thought the ATC logo looked pretty cool... and it seemed like a good way to make a contribution to the trail maintenance effort.

 

In any event, there will be coins that commemorate the AT. :D

-Bosley

 

Don't let my SERIES stop you from making your coin! Please go ahead with your plans! ;)

 

If you do, I would like to have a few to add to my collection, PLUS a few more for a special fund raising project I have planned of my own for the ATC at the SERIES completion.

(Not sure exactly how it will be constructed yet, but it involves displaying of the whole SERIES set along side of a map of the AT, and a sale on that "E" place.)

 

Sounds great! I'll keep you posted on the progress. Looking forward to your AT series.

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While many of you have posted an interest in pre-purchasing the whole SERIES and just waiting to recieve the coins as they are produced, at this time we are not prepared to offer that option.

Sorry. :P

 

But, if you are wanting to be assured of recieving the whole SERIES as they are produced then send me an email at

atgeocoin @ hotmail.com (remove the spaces)

to have your name added to a Appalachian Trail mailing list from the minter to get the option of purchasing the coins before each one becomes available to the general public.

This address is for subscription request only! Direct any comments or questions to me via PM or my personal email or by posting them here.

 

While we'd like for everyone to be able to have this option we are only going to make the first 150 LE combo sets reservable on a first come first serve basis, so as to give anyone not reading this post at this time at least a fair chance of being able to get the coins when they become avavilable.

 

Please do not place your name on this list unless you "definately" intend to purchase the whole set as they become available.

 

Anyone placing their name on the list that doesn't not purchase their coin(s) when they become available will be dropped from future pre-purchasing mailings on this series.

 

Also, please note in the email if you are going to be purchasing just the standard coins or the combo of the standard and LE. Also note how many you intend to purchase. (For the combo you only need to note the number of sets - not the number of coins)

 

Thanks,

-Dwayne-

Edited by gridlox
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Please do not send request to my PM or to my personal email address.

(I've already recieved 2 by PM just since the posting above)

 

The reason for the atgeocoin @ hotmail.com address is to keep all request in a central location until the list is turn over to the minter upon recieving the 150 LE Combo limit or us recieving the shipment of the first coin.

 

THANKS! :P

 

-Dwayne-

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