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Does Anyone Else Think This Is A Good Idea?


LooAndRoo

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If this, sending out a laminated picture, becomes accepted practice, what is to stop someone else from stealing your coin and sending a picture out in it's place?

How would you ever know? <_<

Exactly this happened to one of my coins:CENT5'S RIPPED OFF US GEOCOIN So I relabeled the coin page and noted on it the coin was stolen. I asked the cacher who notified me this was happening to my coin to drop the replicated "Poker Chip" in the trash where it belongs. So whomever has the actual coin will have a difficult time "Sharing" this particular coin but I'm sure it looks good in their junk drawer.

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Found our first real coin in a cache this weekend. It was an awesome coin - POW/MIA - and I am glad I have seen it and will let it visit with us for a bit. I now am worried about putting it back out because I just hate to think that it will probably turn up missing in a matter of time. However, the guy who put it out wants it to travel, so when I find a worthy cache I will send it on it's way.

 

Unless I missed it there is no grand prize at the end, nor is there even an end to the game. There are little rewards along the way, whether it be the thrill of FTF, finding a coin in a cache, finding a cache at all, seeing the neat spot you wouldn't have seen otherwise even if you never find the cache, following the travels of your TB, etc. That being said, everyone probably plays this game a little differently and if someone wants to see how many icons they can get no matter the method, or if they want to buy a pretty coin and let it travel via a copy and they find this rewarding, then have the reward. Even if I disagree with what they find rewarding, it should not diminish the rewards I receive. I look forward to the chance I may get to find another real coin and move it along; but if I don't I will still enjoy the thrill of the hunt!

 

BTW, I doubt I will ever put a trackable coin out unless I decide to get my own coin minted and I doubt I would even by a coin anyway, except possibly if it was as a commemorative coin of an event or location that I would buy as a personal souvenir.

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I've noticed that the people who refuse to accept any substitute for a real geocoin in a cache tend to have few, if any, of their own activated trackable coins out at risk.

 

A coincidence? I think not.

 

I beg to differ

 

I duuno know how much research you did but I have put 50 registered trackable coins out in the past year and 16 more ready to go along with over 100 unregistered and untrackable coins put out in caches or given away (40+ coins at this event alone.)GCQJHV

 

Atlantagal Collection: 1000+ (unique coins)

Wild: 34 as travelers

Plus probably around 200+ various personals dropped in caches as swag

 

kealia and HulaBum:

In collection - 500 +

In the wild - really not sure. I've activated about 10 trackables that have been/are being released, but I've left personal coins as well as non-trackables too often to count.

 

nielsenc over 50

Boo39R 35+

LemonFreshDog 50+

NFA 10+(Out of 18 trackables on their profile)

Team Jsam 3 out of 5 or 60% of their registered trackables

BelKen 6 of 8 or 75% of their registered trackables

Nacaya 2 of 2

cqdq 30 of 33 trackables on their profile

 

Certainly, many of us collectors keep coins and chose to activate them for the icon on our profile and choose not to release them. Why not? We paid for them or traded for them.

 

Your assertion seems to indicate that the collectors owe the caching community something (release your coins) when in fact many of us are responsible for placing a great deal of the coins out there into circulation.

 

You can put your sock puppet away now.

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Hiya,

We have 640+ coins in our collection (where they will stay, unactivated) :anitongue:

We have release/activated 22 coins (included in the count are our USA geocoins) and have a total of 44 Travelers out there. (Several of them are marked unknown, because, doggone it, we'd don't know where they are :ph34r: )

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I've noticed that the people who refuse to accept any substitute for a real geocoin in a cache tend to have few, if any, of their own activated trackable coins out at risk.

 

A coincidence? I think not.

 

:anitongue: So it's your way or the highway??

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We have release/activated 22 coins (included in the count are our USA geocoins) and have a total of 44 Travelers out there. (Several of them are marked unknown, because, doggone it, we'd don't know where they are :) )

I think it's great that you've put that many coins out. There needs to be more people like you. Unfortunately, according to their stats, most of the people who are just dead set against anyone putting out a copy haven't put out any real trackable coins at all or they've only released one or two. Until they've experienced some of the frustration of losing coins themselves, I don't see where they're justified in telling others it's wrong to put out a copy and that anyone who does it is cheap and stupid.

 

So it's your way or the highway??

 

??? Just the opposite. I think real coins are great. I think copies are OK too if they're titled properly. If you look back at some of these posts you'll see other people are the ones threatening to tear up any copied coins they come across and labeling anyone who puts one out as being cheap and stupid.

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If you look back at some of these posts you'll see other people are the ones threatening to tear up any copied coins they come across and labeling anyone who puts one out as being cheap and stupid.

 

Let's not be dramatic for effect. It was ONE person who said that and he was quickly corrected by a few folks about doing that to things that were not his.

 

Again, it comes down to realizing that you'll never get everything and that's OK.

 

I can't afford a Mercedes right now, so guess what? I don't get one. I've accepted that I'll never see every coin out there and that's OK with me - that's the way it goes.

 

This is an issue that everybody is going to have to agree to disagree on. It's been discussed a number of times and I don't think anybody is going to change thier stance. And guess what? That's OK, too. Not everybody has to agree on everything.

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Certainly, many of us collectors keep coins and chose to activate them for the icon on our profile and choose not to release them. Why not? We paid for them or traded for them.

 

Your assertion seems to indicate that the collectors owe the caching community something (release your coins) when in fact many of us are responsible for placing a great deal of the coins out there into circulation.

 

 

Apparently I haven't made my point very clearly. We're talking about occasionally putting out a COPY of a coin in a cache, because people steal the real coins, and there aren't many real coins out to be found. There are *some people* who are posting that putting a copy in a cache would only be done by someone who is cheap and stupid and they're threatening to tear up any copies they come across. To them only REAL coins should ever be put in caches. Yet if you look at many of these same people's stats page, they haven't put very many, if any, real trackable coins out themselves and they haven't had the experience of watching their own coins be stolen.

 

I certainly don't blame anyone for not putting out their real coins because they will almost certainly end up missing within a few months. My point is that if people aren't willing to put real coins out in the wild themselves, how can they justify telling other people they can only put out real coins, and if anyone puts out a copy, they're cheap and stupid?

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I've noticed that the people who refuse to accept any substitute for a real geocoin in a cache tend to have few, if any, of their own activated trackable coins out at risk.

 

A coincidence? I think not.

My personal coins are not trackable on this site, but are on my own site. The Oregon 2003 coins I placed are not trackable here - but are trackable on another site. Close to 100 of those two coins have been placed by me. Sorry to those who hunt icons. I only place coins :)

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I've noticed that the people who refuse to accept any substitute for a real geocoin in a cache tend to have few, if any, of their own activated trackable coins out at risk.

 

A coincidence? I think not.

My personal coins are not trackable on this site, but are on my own site. The Oregon 2003 coins I placed are not trackable here - but are trackable on another site. Close to 100 of those two coins have been placed by me. Sorry to those who hunt icons. I only place coins :)

 

We have released more than 150 Ladybug Kids coins via trades and cache drops (see Ladybug Kids Geocoin Tracking). We released over fifty 2005 Alaska geocoins to the wild. We also released seven geocaching.com trackable coins with two more ready to release.

 

We definitely don't go for releasing copies of trackable coins. The one exception is a coin replica making the rounds in Alaska for which there will be a drawing for the real coin later this year. Each cacher who logs the replica will have their name go into the pot.

Edited by Ladybug Kids
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Count me in the group that doesn't see the point. I want the real thing. If I happened to find a laminated picture in a cache, I would ignore it. If I had just made the hike specifically to find a coin, I would not be a happy camper to find a cheap facsimile.

 

By the way, I like to collect the icons, but the icons go with the coin, just like a tick on my cache icon goes with actually finding a cache.

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Taken to the extreme and to rid all of their angst about this issue lets just have TPTB post a list of ALL the tracking numbers of ALL the coins and everyone can log them. Whats the difference? A piece of paper, laminated or not is simply NOT a coin.

 

Finding coins is a fun and somewhat unique experience. I'll keep putting them out and enjoying the logs and if they go missing I don't loose a wink of sleep.

Edited by CENT5
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I do have to say... I used to think it was a good idea....

 

until I ran across one in a cache. Would possibly been different if the coin was listed as a copy, but no... it was just a laminated picture.

 

Kinda ruined the experience of finding a coin in a cache that day. I even logged the cache that the picture needed to stay in the cache so that other cachers might save the time expended in hunting for it.

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I think that people are getting their underwear in a wad over something they can do nothing about. Of course we are all entitled to our opinions, but we must be aware of the fact that, as a general rule, people will do what they want regardless of what others think. Getting upset over what someone else does is pointless, you have no control over it and it only causes ulcers and heartburn.

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I'll add my signature to the petition against fake coins in caches. Doesn't this break the rules against "virtual" travel bugs anyway? I thought that you had to actually see the coin to be able to legitimately log it: anything else is abuse of the system.

 

Even if it's well-presented, a "copy" of a geocoin is not a geocoin: it's simply a note to let you know a tracking number so you can add a bogus "Found it" log back home. The tracking number you use is that of the actual geocoin. The geocoin that exists but that you haven't found!

 

I have no intention of logging any of these "coins" (and yes, I've released many of my geocoins into the wild, accepting that a few will get stolen). They are a nuisance as well, as you now have to check the coin description instead of just seeing the icon in a list of caches. In fact, they are no better than the "virtual" coins we were plagued with a while ago (they aren't much different).

 

As an aside, what's the verdict if I produce 100 laminated fake geocoins (all using the same real coin as a basis) and release them all over the place, as a favour to the geocachers in the area who will easily be able to log the coin and get the icon. Good idea too?

 

HH

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Doesn't this break the rules against "virtual" travel bugs anyway?

[/qoute]

 

? it isn't virtual, as the number is not written onto the coins page.

there is a *real* piece of -something- in the cache... if you didn't found that,

then you didn't found the number.

 

As an aside, what's the verdict if I produce 100 laminated fake geocoins (all using the same real coin as a basis) and release them all over the place, as a favour to the geocachers in the area who will easily be able to log the coin and get the icon. Good idea too?

 

I would not do that beause it would mess up the track for the coin.

If you would make the rule, that these can not be logged as found, but just as "discovered",

then the track wouldn't apply anyways, BUT:

the coin-icon can not be at more then one cache at a time,

so nobody would actually know that your coins are at all those caches beforehand.

Therefor having one copy of the coin making the round is the most logical way to go.

Once that one bites the dust just send of another copy.

 

Now, here is an idea:

every time you place a cache, glue one of the laminates into the lid of the container,

with the note "Hey, you discovered my cache! Now you can also discover my coin! Cache on!"

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:laughing: why bother! Coins are not for keeping! Next time your all at a Geocaching event and you see someone that is collecting coins. Smack them! I had a coin that was let out and was never logged once! What kind of people are you! :laughing:

 

I think u r onto something there.

If we could *enforce* a law (ha ha) that no activated geocoin is ever to be kept by anyone, ever!

then we wouldn't be in the situation we are in right now.

 

The problem are not so much collectors that show their "stuff" at events,

but the coin thiefs, that keep *other* ppls coins!!!

(May that be malicious collectors, muggles or newbie cachers who do not know better)

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let's say, you did travel to London, but the closest you got to seeing Big Ben was a giant poster of it on a house-wall... nevermind about having seen Big Ben! You have indeed been to London!!!

You can tell everybody that u seen this enormous poster of Big Ben while u were there.

I bet ppl still will be impressed...

 

:laughing:

 

even better: u can take the poster with you and hang it onto a house in - say - Paris...

Edited by V-I-cacher
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I don't usually spend much (any) time in the forums, but the geocaching side of the site was down, so I came in for a look, and WOW! I never thought something I did would get this much attention.

 

I can hardly claim credit for being the first to do this. The first "coin" I found was a Pennsylvania copy, a very BIG copy. Personally, I was not disappointed at all to find it. After all, it was in a cache, I did find it, and after everything was said and done, I have the same thing from it that I have from the first "real" coin that I found, an icon!

 

I am a geocoincoin collector, and I take my coins to geocaching events, Boy Scout events, and the like. I enjoy the pleasure that other people get while they go through my collection, pulling out and handling the coins. I do not supply a list of tracking numbers, and I ask that people do not copy them down, because all of my coins (all the trackable ones at least) have a copy out in the wild, and they will have to find it to be able to log it. By the same token, I do not log coins or TB's at events, but I will "discover" them if I find them in a cache and cannot help them with their mission or move them on. You can call me cheap or whatever you like, but I simply cannot afford to buy or trade for 2 of every coin that I want for my collection. Making the copies allows me to send "coins" out to travel while still allowing people to enjoy them locally.

 

I briefly considered something like photos glued to a wooden nickel or a washer, but I did see the forum where someone sold such a replica of a moun10bike coin on eBay as the real thing. I want no part of that, so I came up with something that is very easy to produce, will fit in a wide variety of caches (even many micros), and could never be mistaken for or passed off as the real thing. While the title does not say "Copy", I try to be consistent, so if the coin is "Amagrud's ...(insert coin name here)", you can rest assured that it is a copy and not a real coin. When I drop a real coin (there is an abundance of real coins in Mississippi caches) I state in my logs that I am dropping a real coin.

 

I started geocaching because I was curious about the sport or hobby. I have continued to geocache because it is fun and I am enjoying it so far. While I cannot speak for anyone else, it is the cache that provides 99% of the fun for me, not the swag, coin, or TB that I might find in it. A lame cache is a lame cache whether it has a moun10bike coin, a WJTB, or just a logbook. A really tough, interesting, challenging cache is fun on its own merits, and many times when I have found such a cache I have not even bothered to check and see what coins or TB's might be lurking inside, just being able to sign the logbook was enough for me.

 

All of my coin copies state that they are placed in the cache to provide the icon and fun for the next person who finds them. If you find it, want the icon, and enjoy moving the copy, great!, I put it there for you and your enjoyment. If you don't like the idea, that is ok also, I did not put it out there for you anyway, I put it out there for the next guy. If you want to take it and throw it in the trash, that is not going to hurt me at all, because I can still take my collection to the next meet & eat and watch the smiles as people go through the coins. The only person you are hurting is the next guy that may come along and enjoy getting the icon. Personally, I think a lot less of the person who will trash a coin copy than I do of someone who would steal a coin, because the person who trashes a coin copy is willing to hurt other people without receiving any benefit for himself.

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Personally, I think a lot less of the person who will trash a coin copy than I do of someone who would steal a coin, because the person who trashes a coin copy is willing to hurt other people without receiving any benefit for himself.

 

they might as well have stolen the 'real' coin....the 'icon' (whether it was a coin or not) is no longer being shared with others, and you can no longer live vicariously through your TB.....in addition to the benefits for 'finding cachers', are there no benefits for the owner? i thought travel bugs were about the journey, as an owner and a mover.....

 

i have sent copies abroad....and most of the loggers state in their log that it was a copy. some are disgruntled, bhut the still picked it up....

 

i placed copies in a local cache, and in the cache log, someone mentioned that they did not pick it up b/c it was a copy.....

 

everyone has there own thing. you do yours, we'll do ours.

 

if you dont like it, dont do it.....

Edited by ChapterhouseInc
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I'm going to add my two cents to the discussion of "copy" coins. Chronologically I'm not a new cacher, I've been playing the game since 2001 and it has been interesting to watch it evolve and mature. I've found only four or five coins and you just can't beat the feeling of finding a real honest coin! They are about a thousand times better than travel bugs. Lately I've been specifically targetting caches just to find coins. A while back I ran across my first "copy". It just wasn't the same and I was disappointed because the title of the coin didn't list it as such. I vowed that if I started to activate any of my coins I wouldn't resort to a copy coin tactic despite living in an area that must have a Geocoin Bermuda Triangle (Colorado Springs, CO). There seems to be a bunch of them that disappear around here - must be the StarGate up a Cheyene Mountain Air Force Station!

 

Anyway, my father recently passed away and I have been thinking about activating & releasing my National Park coins into the wild in his memory. He loved to go visit the parks and would have gotten a kick out of seeing them travel around the county! (Which reminds me - if anyone has a Grand Canyon Geocoin they would like to part with please let me know!) Anyway, I would be upset if they disappeared within a couple of weeks so I am considering releasing a copy of them...

 

So, being very much against the idea at first I'm now very much for the idea - it depends on the circumstances and emotional symbolism attached to the coin by the owner...

Edited by Traveling-Gnome
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Just received my "Puzzle Cache" 4 coin set in the mail! YAY!

 

So now I'm going to scan it and put the copies out in caches. People can post pictures of themselves trying to put together the little pieces of paper!

 

Yeah, right!

 

If you don't want it stolen, don't cache it! You can be like the other lame-o's that have books and books full of coins, I even saw one guy who made a cache of his book, posted with a waypoint and everything, but it's not hidden!!! And your trackables page can be 60 screens long without ever having to leave the house!!

 

THAT'S LAME!

 

On the OTHER hand.....

 

STEALING IS SO LAME, it's sad!

 

What do you do with your coins after you've stolen them? All these other lame-o's going through each other's books and copying numbers, AND YOU CAN'T EVEN DO THAT! Someone will find out you stole it! You can't cache it, either!

 

Does anyone know of any place I can read stories of thieves getting caught? Someone showing off "their" coin and someone logs it? Or maybe someone getting caught at a cache? I would LOVE to read something like that, it would make me feel better when one of my coins gets stolen, which I'm sure some will!!

 

Mike

O-

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I think this is an awful idea. :)

 

If you just want to collect icons why not log “virtual gecoins” – an equally awful idea. :)

 

If I see the icon for a geocoin next to a cache I’m going for I expect to see the REAL THING.

 

Just my opinion. :anibad:

 

 

Not just your opinion. I visit some caches specifically because there is an interesting coin there. If I got there and found a photocopy instead of a coin I'd be very annoyed.

 

If you want to release a photocopy with a travel bug tag that's fine, but calling it a geocoin with an icon is misrepresenting the item and I think that's simply unfair to everyone else. It hasn't happened in any of my caches yet, but if I found such a copy I would remove it as CITO because I wouldn't want my cache page misrepresenting the contents of the cache. If the owner wanted it to continue, they could release another photocopy.

 

Do people who do this photocopy their coins and bank notes so they can hang on to the original in case someone steals it?

 

If you really want to release a piece of paper as a travel bug, buy a travel bug tag, laminate one of your kids' drawings, and attach the tag to the drawing. But please don't waste my time with fake geocoins.

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I think these copies will help promote theft. If it becomes accepted practise then it will make it easier for a coin thief to copy the practise and every one carries on blissfully unware.

 

Yes, I agree with that. If photocopied geocoins (and regular travel bugs, for that matter) become an acceptable practice, it will lead to more coin/bug thefts with more photocopies acting as doppelganger.

 

As to throwing out the copy that belongs to someone else, well, it's only a copy and they released it so as to be replaceable, so let them replace it if it's important to them. The incremental cost to the photocopy owner is zero.

 

I've lost about a dozen TBs and geocoins over the last few years. But I keep sending them out anyway, and sometimes they have nice adventures. If I get tired of wasting money on it, I can always choose not to send out any more.

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I think these copies will help promote theft. If it becomes accepted practise then it will make it easier for a coin thief to copy the practise and every one carries on blissfully unware.

 

Yes, I agree with that. If photocopied geocoins (and regular travel bugs, for that matter) become an acceptable practice, it will lead to more coin/bug thefts with more photocopies acting as doppelganger.

 

 

Really now, why would anyone ever bother to steal a coin from a cache and go back home and make a copy of it to put out in it's place? :anibad: They would (and do) just take the real coin, keep it and not mention anything at all about it. If anything, putting out real coins leads to caches being muggled by coin thiefs looking to cover their tracks.

 

Photocopied coins work great for people who like to find coins in caches for the icons. You just have to be capable of a little abstract thinking. If people want to see real coins they can buy them for themselves or go to an event and see them by the thousands. Sending out real geocoins is a neat concept but it just doesn't work in real life.

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Photocopied coins work great for people who like to find coins in caches for the icons. You just have to be capable of a little abstract thinking. If people want to see real coins they can buy them for themselves or go to an event and see them by the thousands. Sending out real geocoins is a neat concept but it just doesn't work in real life.

 

Hear Hear!

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Photocopied coins work great for people who like to find coins in caches for the icons.

 

Except that when you find a photocopy you haven't found a coin. Logging a photocopied coin is no different than randomly finding caches from the seek page and logging them for the cache count - after all, all you need is some abstract thinking...

 

Why not photocopy a geocache too? Then you can pass it around and people can log their "find". Maintenance would be easy and you'd never have to worry about losing money if it gets muggled. You could make it a photocopy of a geocache some place really hard too, a 5/5 kind of cache that most people will never see.

 

Releasing a photocopy so you can score the icon on your page is like cheating at solitaire. The world won't end if you do it, but people will think less of you when they find out.

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Photocopied coins work great for people who like to find coins in caches for the icons.

 

Except that when you find a photocopy you haven't found a coin.

 

That's where the capability for abstract thinking has to kick in. You've found a graphic representation of a coin in a cache where otherwise there wouldn't have been a coin. It's a lot more sporting than being handed a binder full of coins at the Red Lobster.

 

If you want to put $10 coins out there for people to find a few times before they get stolen that's great and here's hoping for lots of good Karma for you. But there's no need to threaten to throw other people's copied coins away. If you don't like them, just ignore them. It's not that hard.

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You've found a graphic representation of a coin in a cache where otherwise there wouldn't have been a coin.

 

Exactly! You found something OTHER than a coin. So it wasn't there and you don't get the icon. Not everybody will, and that's OK. If everybody could get APE caches or Moun10Bike coins they would lose thier appeal of being unique and rare.

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Exactly! You found something OTHER than a coin. So it wasn't there and you don't get the icon. Not everybody will, and that's OK. If everybody could get APE caches or Moun10Bike coins they would lose thier appeal of being unique and rare.

 

but they r not anyways... just go to any big event and there u go!

I rather find a copy of a coin then *no* coin at all!

A copy of a coin is *still* a coin, just out of paper&plastic...

...and still better then my other idea of attaching the coin-number to some other TB, say a monkey or maybe a Mr.Incredible-figurine...

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Another vote for wanting to find the "REAL" thing.....

 

How would you feel if.....

 

You went to a cache if hopes of getting a JEEP. You find the cache, get it open and UH? What is that? This happened to me, and it was more disappointing than finding a jeep not there. There WAS a PAPER TB tag that said "replacement tag for JEEP #XXXXXX, and attached to this PAPER tag was a toy bulldozer or something or other :blink: . DID I LOG THIS OR TAKE IT? NO WAY :o . To put out this phoney baloney, some one had to have had the real JEEP tag at some point to get the tag number from it.

 

It's fine if people want to put out copies of their coins, that's their choice. And I will chose not to move or log such if I find it. But, this is still someone's tb, and no one should take it upon themselves to destroy it. If you don't like it, leave it alone. There are plenty of cachers that have posted that would be happy to find and log the copy, and I'm all for making cachers enjoy the sport. I also don't think these "copies" should have the icon show up in caches, since it is NOT the coin. Perhaps there should be a way to put a "C" for copy next to the icon when it shows up on cache pages, so people know it's a copy before they run out and try to find it. I only want to log coins I've actually got to see, hold, and admire up close their fine art work. I DO understand people not wanting to put out coins for fear of them being stolen. I've just started my own coin collection, and these will never go out. I have out one 2006 USA coin, and the first person to take it, still has it after a month.

 

But, I have decided to start putting out coins and TB's. One month, a TB, the next month a coin, the next month a tb, etc. That will be 12 new tb's/coins entering the system every year at a cost to me of about $5.00 a month. Not to bad a price I think for a hobby I love, and being a cacher who loves finding and moving travel bugs. And the coins will be inexpensive ones. I'm going to pick up a few $5.00 and $6.00 coins from the geocoin store and start with those. For instance, I will not be putting out my one and only SPIN coin, but I'll put out a few 2006 CITO coins, I already have my own, and if the ones I put out come up missing, oh well. Maybe a few cachers will get the fun of finding them.

 

So, to each his own. I like finding the real thing, actually getting to hold the real item, has even inspired me to seek out and buy my own coin after handling the real coin.

 

Happy caching :o

Ms. B

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Photocopied coins work great for people who like to find coins in caches for the icons.

 

Except that when you find a photocopy you haven't found a coin.

 

That's where the capability for abstract thinking has to kick in. You've found a graphic representation of a coin in a cache where otherwise there wouldn't have been a coin.

 

Exactly, so let's start passing around pictures of geocaches too. People can log the find, there's no poison plants, certainly the person placing the cache doesn't have to worry about it being trashed or stolen. It's win-win, right? Just a little abstract thinking, right?

 

It's a lot more sporting than being handed a binder full of coins at the Red Lobster.

 

No, it isn't. It's cheesy and deceptive, bordering on malicious.

 

If you want to put $10 coins out there for people to find a few times before they get stolen that's great and here's hoping for lots of good Karma for you. But there's no need to threaten to throw other people's copied coins away. If you don't like them, just ignore them. It's not that hard.

 

Thanks for the karma. It's not a threat, it's a straightforward statement of fact - in my opinion a photocopied geocoin would be like any other photocopy in one of my caches, trash to be hauled out. I will not have people misrepresenting coins and travel bugs in my caches. I would be thoroughly embarassed to find out that someone hacked through the thorns and high grass, searched around in a space with low clearance, found the cache, opened it up and found a photocopy where there should have been a geocoin.

As far as I'm concerned, it's just a piece of paper the same as putting in a piece of newspaper or a company letterhead. It's not a travel bug, it's not a geocoin. There's really no room for argument on it. It's a piece of waste paper.

 

I'd be somewhat tolerant about such a paper that clearly spells out on the website that it is a piece of paper, not a geocoin, because at least that doesn't misrepresent the object, even if someone who would choose to log such a thing unfairly gets an icon.

 

The real kicker is that by activating the coin and releasing a photocopy, you've reduced the collectible value of the coin to 0 anyway because it's activated. It's not like you can sell the coin later.

 

Sending around a photocopy of a geocoin (or a photocopy of a travel bug tag) is no different than just writing the tracking number on a piece of paper. And doing that is simply not allowed.

 

Perhaps, if you've bought a lot of geocoins and don't want them stolen, maybe you should just hang on to them? And if you want to release a travel bug, buy a travel bug tag and release one? But don't think you're doing anyone any favours by releasing pictures of geocoins. All you're doing is making yourself look cheap.

Edited by geoSquid
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Plain and simple, this idea SUCKS!

 

I went to find THIS COIN today. The cache was gone, apparently stolen. I got back home and checked out the coin page and was severely disappointed to find the 'real' coin stays with the owner, while the 'laminated copy' travels around and racks up the mileage. :blink:

 

Lame idea, if you ask me.

 

'Ain't nothin' like the real thing, baaaby....'

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I went to find THIS COIN today. The cache was gone, apparently stolen. I got back home and checked out the coin page and was severely disappointed to find the 'real' coin stays with the owner, while the 'laminated copy' travels around and racks up the mileage. :blink:

 

 

At the risk of stating the obvious, if the cache was stolen, you wouldn't have found the real coin either. Meanwhile, the coin owner didn't lose his coin, which he would have if he had put the real thing out. That's the whole point.

 

I agree that a copy coin should reflect that it's a copy in the title so coin appreciators can search for only the real thing (even if it's been drilled, defaced or shot). For icon hunters it doesn't matter. :o

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Exactly! You found something OTHER than a coin. So it wasn't there and you don't get the icon. Not everybody will, and that's OK. If everybody could get APE caches or Moun10Bike coins they would lose thier appeal of being unique and rare.

 

Pretty much anybody who wants a Moun10bike coin find can get one if they just go to an event. You could probably have gotten a dozen "finds" at Geowoodstock. I bet less than 1% of the people who have a found Moun10bike icon on their stats got it out of a real cache. :blink:

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Exactly, so let's start passing around pictures of geocaches too. People can log the find, there's no poison plants, certainly the person placing the cache doesn't have to worry about it being trashed...

 

 

Wrong analogy. You don't "pass around" the copy coins. The right analogy would be to make an ammo can out of waterproof paper and put it out. You still have to look for it, you still have to bushwhack, you still get poison ivy.

 

If there were only 500 ammo cans ever made, and you wanted to give people a chance to find an ammo can in the woods, what would be wrong with making an ammo can shaped container? :blink:

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If there were only 500 ammo cans ever made, and you wanted to give people a chance to find an ammo can in the woods, what would be wrong with making an ammo can shaped container? :blink:

 

Well, for starters, it wouldn't be an ammo can, so anyone who found the fake containe still wouldn't have found an ammo can, so they would be no further ahead.

 

More importantly, if only 500 ammo cans were made, maybe everyone isn't supposed to have the chance to find one in the woods.

Edited by geoSquid
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Exactly! You found something OTHER than a coin. So it wasn't there and you don't get the icon. Not everybody will, and that's OK. If everybody could get APE caches or Moun10Bike coins they would lose thier appeal of being unique and rare.

 

Pretty much anybody who wants a Moun10bike coin find can get one if they just go to an event. You could probably have gotten a dozen "finds" at Geowoodstock. I bet less than 1% of the people who have a found Moun10bike icon on their stats got it out of a real cache. :blink:

 

I've never seen a Moun10bike coin, and strangely enough, my e-peener isn't any smaller for it. But I've been to the web site associated with Moun10bike, so should I get the icon? I've seen a picture of a Moun10bike coin, and by your logic, all I need to do is look at a picture and imagine it in my hand and it's as good as the real thing.

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All right are we on to something here? Are we not all tired of paying $10.00 per coin? Are we not tired of someone padding his or her pockets?? Would it not irritate you to pay the price for a metal coin and get a piece of paper? Well what if you paid the appropriate price for a laminated card that you could track on GC.com.

 

Lets think about this, TB tags are $5.00 per tag (+ shipping) and they include a tracking number. To have a coin made with tracking you will pay on average of $4.00 to $6.00 per coin to have it made (used an on line interactive pricing guide to make this determination). To purchase someone else’s coin you will pay $7.00 to $9.00 per coin.

 

So what if we where to buy tracking numbers and use a “PC” icon and design a coin on paper and laminate it? Lets break the pricing down:

 

o $.002 per coin ($150.00 for “PC” icon)

o $1.50 per coin ($750.00 for 500 tracking numbers)

o $.04 per paper ($8.00 ream of paper/500 sheets*25 sheets per 500 coins)

o $.04 for laminate pouch- 5mil ($18.00 for 500 laminating pouches)

o $0.37 for shipping of finished item

o $0.14 per envelope ($70.50 for 500 envelopes)

o $0.01 color print ($.20 per page color print (?)*25 sheets=$5.00/500)

o Grand Total = $2.10 per trackable laminated card

 

Is this a possible alternative to Dog Tags and Coins? Anyone care to explore this adventure?

 

I hope my math figures are right, but lets hear your opinion

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I've never seen a Moun10bike coin, and strangely enough, my e-peener isn't any smaller for it.

 

e-peener? :tired:

 

Translation from American to Aussie anyone? ;)

 

Not that I can't guess :laughing:

 

Canadian actually.

 

Think "electronic penis". Surely Australians must have a term for it :lol: Send the question to Chopper, I bet he can think up a good term for it.

 

Joking aside, this is really a non-productive discussion. People who have no qualms about pocketing a released coin will continue to do so, even after reading how it irritates people. People who believe they have that a picture of a coin is as good as the real thing will probably continue to do so regardless of what anyone else says, and when they later buy a photo of something on ebay because they though it was the real thing but didn't read the fine print, the rest of us can chuckle B) And, of course, those people who think that releasing photos of coins and representing them as good as the real coin are cretins will continue to think so regardless of the discussion.

 

Honestly, there's nothing to be gained here.

Edited by geoSquid
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...in my opinion a photocopied geocoin would be like any other photocopy in one of my caches, trash to be hauled out. I will not have people misrepresenting coins and travel bugs in my caches. I would be thoroughly embarassed to find out that someone hacked through the thorns and high grass, searched around in a space with low clearance, found the cache, opened it up and found a photocopy where there should have been a geocoin.

 

I for one would thank you for keeping your caches clean! I have headed out on special journeys to find geocoins and would be RIPE-mad if I found a photocopy instead. It's definitely a cheat.

 

I only recently started collecting coins, and I am collecting them the same way I collect other world coins: I locate them, buy them, and put them in a binder to enjoy (all activated, by the way).

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...in my opinion a photocopied geocoin would be like any other photocopy in one of my caches, trash to be hauled out. I will not have people misrepresenting coins and travel bugs in my caches. I would be thoroughly embarassed to find out that someone hacked through the thorns and high grass, searched around in a space with low clearance, found the cache, opened it up and found a photocopy where there should have been a geocoin.

 

I for one would thank you for keeping your caches clean! I have headed out on special journeys to find geocoins and would be RIPE-mad if I found a photocopy instead. It's definitely a cheat.

 

I only recently started collecting coins, and I am collecting them the same way I collect other world coins: I locate them, buy them, and put them in a binder to enjoy (all activated, by the way).

 

How about the cache inventory? Is there a way to get rid of the listing for the fake coin, after you've thrown it out?

 

Mike

O-

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Late last night, I saw someone had dropped a coin in one of my caches. One I hadn't seen before. So I get up early this morning to go have a look at it. HOW DISAPPOINTING TO FIND A LAMINATED PICTURE OF THE COIN. :blink: I posted a "note" for the coin, and the owner emailed me to say that the real coin had been muggled, so they put this out so it could continue it journey. That's ok, but it would be nice to know when it's a COPY and not the real thing. I would not have gone to my cache this morning if I'd known it was a picture of the coin, instead of the real coin. I like ICONS, but I won't be logging this as a find, since I didn't actually hold the real coin in my hand. Now I have to go put it back in the cache, since I didn't notice that it wasn't a real coin until I had walked all the way back to my car! :blink:

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I was getting a list of caches to hit this afternoon after work and was excited to see one prospect that had a coin with a cool icon. I checked and it is a laminated copy, think I will pass. At least this guy states clearly on his page what it is. I had picked up one of his at an event and helped it on it's journey and since it was my first coin "found" I thought this was an acceptable practice, but after educating myself I have decided that I'm going to keep this type of thing off my future finds. I have only found two real coins in a cache, both FTF caches, one was a traveler and one was an unactivated FTF prize. Oh, I did find one in a traveling cache too. So, I don't have as many cool icons, but I think they will mean more to me as I do find them.

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