The Symbols and Shapes of Your Coins

[+Shop99er]

Since I can't remember ever seeing a thread about this, I thought I'd start one.

 

When I'm gazing at my coin collection, I always wonder "Huh. Why'd they do that?" Sometimes it's the shape, sometimes it's what's on the coin.

 

So, why did you do it? Do the pictures/images have a special meaning? Does the shape you chose?

 

I'll start with my personal coins.

 

My first coin has the shirt that is also my avatar here. That shirt is also my "official" event shirt, if a costume isn't called for. The shirt symbolizes my basic attitude.

 

On the back of the coin is a Moai---aka an Easter Island statue. It is there because we are both big into tiki.

 

In the ring is the old Jimmy Buffet Caribbean (sp?) Lizard. We're both major Parrotheads.

 

The bushwhacking slogan reflects our penchant to bushwhack when it's not needed.

 

My second coin is in the shape of a shirt, and is in fact, my avatar again. The back is based on a picture taken in my front yard of me at one of our early at-home luaus, before GeoLuau was born. The slogan is from the Alan Jackson/Jimmy Buffet song.

 

What's your story?

 

[edit--spelling]

Edited October 12, 2006 by Shop99er

[+Hula Bum]

Let's see, our K9 coins came about because we cache with our dogs, the first 2 in the series were of goldens and shepherds, both of which we had/have.

 

Our personal coin represents our avatars. Kealia has some weird infatuation with Gollum (don't ask!!), he even has a doll (yes, I said doll) he takes on his long hikes that gets pictures taken. The whole "precious" thing and all, I dunno..... far too long of a story. Then my 1/2 is near and dear to my heart as I am a dancer and hula is my passion. The line drawn down the middle is the yin/yang thing, and for those that know us it's pretty obvious why that's there. For those that don't you can just go with the beauty/beast theme of the avatars.

 

The rest of the coins were not as much connected to us, so I won't go into them.

[+whitebear]

My first coin is of my Dog Bear who is now unable to go on hikes or walks but is still a puppy in his mind.Lots of time when we were out hiking or caching we would come upon someone and almost always they would say "what kind of dog is he,He looks like a big white bear" Hence my caching name & my first coin. If I was in a funny mood I would tell them he was a Malamute crossed with a Polar Bear(some beleived me!)

Edited October 12, 2006 by whitebear

[+Bhob]

There is an excellent place to record this type of information

 

http://trackablecoins.com/tiki-index.php?p...ackableGeocoins

 

This resource is intended to be easily accessable by all

 

As the creator of a coin, your entry would probably be considered definitive

[+AtlantaGal]

My two personals fuse past and present locations. I wanted to represent both Pennsylvania and Georgia as well as express my passion/obsession for Penn State football. I made them round because, well, coins tend to be round

 

My 2007 coin will be oval. It still sticks with the original theme, but I drop the gc logo on the new one and the coin design is more artsy than my past two. I am pretty happy with the results of the artwork (thank you Jamie). They'll also be numbered for 2007. Plan to have them in hand in December.

Edited October 12, 2006 by AtlantaGal

[+Cav Scout]

My design is about my career and tattoo (I have on my right wrist). I have been a Recon Cavalry Scout for the last 20 years. Thats why I chose "Cav Scout" for my name and use the crossed Cavalry Sabers representing the Cavalry/Armor branch of the US Army on my geocoin. I have always liked Ravens and I'm still amazed at how smart they are, this is the reason I used the age old celtic design on the coin. (contrary to popular belief Ravenswood winery does not own the celtic raven design).

 

My coin and the symbols all have meaning to me.

[ATMouse]

I don't have a personal coin, but I am the designer of the Allegany State Park Geobash coin for 2006 and have just completed the design process for the 2007 coin.

 

The 2006 coin is an outline of the park, the smaller stars are either points of interest or enterences to the park; the large star is the location of the first event. The symbols around the compass rose on th eback are the sponsoring agencies or geocaching clubs: A triangle for Kinzua, a keystone for the Keystone Kachers, a stylized maple leaf for the NYS Parks department and NYS for NYGO.

 

This year, the coin is the stylized maple leaf with the geocaching club symbols and a raccoon peering around the edge. At our first meeting for next year's event, a raccoon decided to make an appearance. So he got included in the design of the coin. Turned out nice. (More thank you's to Jamie!!!)

 

Here's one of the samples:

 

Edited October 12, 2006 by ATMouse

[+MustangJoni]

My coin reflects my love of horses and Mustangs. At this point in my life, I don't own horses anymore, as I've moved to the big city, and they are alot of work. I did buy myself a 40th anniversary Mustang for my 40th birthday two years ago.

 

The flip side has the state of Texas. I was born here, but moved away. My family eventually came back, and there is no place I'd rather live. The people here are amazing. It has so many diverse landscapes. I have a deep love in my heart for Texas and wanted to reflect that on my coin. That is not a diss on any other state, but Texas is home for me. The coordinates on it are for the Mustangs of Las Colinas. Oh, and "Mi Vida Loca" means My Crazy Life...which I live! LOL

 

Edit to add picture:

 

Edited October 12, 2006 by MustangJoni

[+res2100]

Our personal coin (see avatar) is based on my popular Bouncy Bunny series of puzzle caches. The image of the bunny came from a stamp that my son used when signing log books. The back side contains puzzle pieces, since all of the caches in this series are puzzle caches, so it made sense. I also used to have many rabbits growing up, so it was just another reason for including the bunny on the design of the coin. I really love this coin!

 

The Toronto coins that we were involved in making are based on items that have to do with the City of Toronto, which is where everyone involved was born, raised, lives. CN Tower (Tallest building in the world), SkyDome (Toronto Blue Jays play here), Blue Maple Leaf to represent the Toronto Maple Leafs, Moose based on the locationless cache and also the famous moose that were scattered around the city in 2000. You can visit the link to get all the information about it.

 

Ontario coin. The 6 of us involved in making this one are all from Ontario, and we chose 2 symbols (Niagara Falls and Loon) that are associated with Ontario.

[+UOTrackers]

The Story of our coin:

 

Chapter 1: The name

Our name, UOTrackers was derived from a game that both my husband and I have been playing for several years. The first Massively Multiple Online Role-playing Game, Ultima Online. Trackers because, well we're tracking down caches. Not all that unlike of Treasure hunters in the game, though the treasure in the game was guarded by monsters of varying degree of difficulty. No monsters here, thankfully.

 

Chapter 2: Side 1 Artwork:

The shape of the coin also comes from the game. Changed slightly it is the compass from the game. In UO however, a compass is turned 45 degrees to the right indicating North to be at about 2:30. On the coin the directions were made into "real life". There is also a small Celtic knot on this side. This is a symbol of the spirit my husband and I have. We both have Scottish and Irish Ancestry. We LOVE Renaissance festivals, and when we were married we were hand fasted with an Anam Cara ceremony.

 

Chapter 3: Our individual Names:

Brae, short for Braelynn. That's me! (the one who posts the most) It's actually a Gaelic name I chose for one of my more well known characters in UO. After playing for so many years the name has essentially become my own. (My real name is Jennifer sorry for any confusion if we've talked)

 

Ancient, my husband, NOT because he's old, but perhaps because he has an old soul. After having cancer 3 times in his life and as a result having to have 2 hip replacements he feels rather old. It's also his gaming name. (his name is Forrest)

 

Andromeda, our daughter.(Bella) It's actually her middle name. For our first Christmas together I gave my husband a star through the international star registry. It was in Cepheus, meaning King. In September 2004 we lost identical twin daughters, Kyra & Jayde. For their first birthday we had a star named for them, it is in Andromeda, meaning Princess. We had wanted to somehow tie our first daughters to their sister. So when she was born, my husband gave her the middle name Andromeda, and she is his little princess.

 

Chapter 4: The Flip Side:

Whiskey and Easy Street is a well known corner in Aiken with lots of history. We wanted to have something that represented where we started caching and this is what we chose. The coordinates on the coin lead to Coins, Tokens & Nickels, Oh My!

 

Edit: Added pictures for the newer folks

Edited October 12, 2006 by UOTrackers

[+chrisgun]

My personal coin is round cuz I prefer round coins..... It has a painter's palette on it cuz I'm a decorative painter when I'm not out geocaching. I added kitty prints around the edge because we are a family of kitties, not children (knock on wood I wanted the big "G" symbol on the back since it's the symbol for geocaching. But when I put it there and showed a friend the design (a non-geocacher), he asked why I was only putting my last initial on the coin rather than both. So I added the C to the G and there you have it....

[avroair]

My avatar name is Avroair and comes from the Avro the plane manufacturer. They made warplanes during world war 2, my grandfather flew in the RAF and was a wireless operator with a famous crew. I have his mission logs and had the priviledge of talking to the crew squadron commander pilot he flew his combat tour with during the war, who happens to be an Australian. (grandfather tradgically died at age of 24 just after the war when his plane was overloaded with American POWs and crashed on takeoff killing all aboard). My other grandfather was a carpenter and built the bombers for AVRO during the war at the factory. I added the AIR part on the end because when I was signing up for an AOL account back in 1989 my username had to be 5 characters or longer.

 

As for the coin, The Red, White and Blue symbol on the front is the famous Royal Air Force (RAF) insignia. The ticks around the outside represent the degrees and the two stars either side represent my two grandfathers. The plane is a spitfire, my favourite... "Avroair was here!" was an inside joke because I have only ever signed the logbooks as Avroair Was Here (since I leave the creative log for online), this was before the micro, log-only craze (back when there were real logbooks).

 

The back side of the coin is the RAF insignia large. With Avroair Was Here once again. My first 80 coins went into caches, so they said that to notify people that I had found the cache.

 

 

Edit: The size thing. I got the size mixed up and expressed to the minter 1" thinking it meant radius, not diameter. So when it came back 1" in diameter I had a micro coin... which of course fits in micro caches!

Edited October 12, 2006 by avroair

[+Marky]

On the front side of our personal is an actual size nano cache. We are infamous for making nano caches popular in our area, and Joani thought it would be funny to have one on our geocoin and have it be actual size (and say so). When we first were trading then, Joani would always throw in a real nano cache as a bonus. The text "Blink and you will miss them" is a reference to their alternate nick name "blinkers", which refers to what the container was before Joani turns them into a geocache (they have LED blinking lights on them).

The back side we wanted to experiment with a 3D die, so we did a hand holding a magellen sportrak, which we found about 3000 caches with. It also has the text "Do you know the waypoints to San Jose". Both of us grew up in San Jose, and I first met Joani here when I was in 4th grade and she was in 3rd. Although both of us were born in other Bay Area cities, we feel like San Jose is home. The sunburst pattern behind the GPS we took from one of the San Jose city logos. With so many caches, and such nice weather year round, San Jose is truly a geocaching friendly town.

--Marky

Edited October 13, 2006 by Marky

[+LadeBear68]

I don't have a personal coin, but I am the designer of the Allegany State Park Geobash coin for 2006 and have just completed the design process for the 2007 coin.

 

The 2006 coin is an outline of the park, the smaller stars are either points of interest or enterences to the park; the large star is the location of the first event. The symbols around the compass rose on th eback are the sponsoring agencies or geocaching clubs: A triangle for Kinzua, a keystone for the Keystone Kachers, a stylized maple leaf for the NYS Parks department and NYS for NYGO.

 

This year, the coin is the stylized maple leaf with the geocaching club symbols and a raccoon peering around the edge. At our first meeting for next year's event, a raccoon decided to make an appearance. So he got included in the design of the coin. Turned out nice. (More thank you's to Jamie!!!)

 

Here's one of the samples:

 

 

Great job ATMouse.

[+CachingCoins]

I'm enjoying this thread. I hope more will add to it. Add pictures. Us newbies don't know all your coins & it would be great to see pictures of the coins you are describing!

[+Hula Bum]

Bhob, the list is great, but a lot of personal coins aren't trackable, so they won't be able to get on the trackable list .

[+nfa]

My personal geocoin is both a geocoin and actual currency.

 

 

The Northern Forest Archipelago (NFA) is a micronation within the Northeastern US, as featured in Lonely Planet's new travel guide {{{yes, really}}}

 

The picture on the front is of myself and my son Ben, King and Crown Prince of the NFA. The back of the coin has typical scene as background for a great Ed Abbey Quote, 3 major components of the NFA, and coordinates for a private geocache located in the NFA's Capital City, Backwoods...

 

Jamie - NFA

[ATMouse]

I'm enjoying this thread. I hope more will add to it. Add pictures. Us newbies don't know all your coins & it would be great to see pictures of the coins you are describing!

 

This was the backside of last year's Allegany State Park Geobash Event coin.

 

 

 

And thanks, LadeBear68! We're really excited about the new coin.

[+graylling]

The backside of my coin has the flower for 2 reasons. First because my last name is Lafleur which is french for 'the flower', secondly it is a wild rose which is the provincial flower of Alberta where I live. The front side is actually a picture of my brother standing on the edge of a ridge during one of our hikes in the mountains. I love the outdoors and try and spend as much time as possible there so that was a fitting image. The words around the outside are one of our family 'mottos'. "If it ain't awkward it ain't fun" My next coin will have a different one on it. My coin is round because I'm like Chrisgun and prefer round coins.

 

Edited October 12, 2006 by graylling

[Not So Lost Puppies]

Our geocoin: (for Trading, Caches and to give away sometimes)

 

Our ID... being that we cache with our geopup Midnight (and we are the rest of her 'pack'), and with the GPSr we aren't ever really lost while caching, we are "Not So Lost Puppies"

 

One side our Avatar, which I created before the coin when I started to make shrinky-dink tokens to leave behind in caches. and the shape of Wisconsin, our home base marked by the star. I put the link to our state geocaching org on it, and the date of our first find.

 

The otherside is our geopup Midnight, the art was created from a photo of her, and since 2006 is the year of the dog, we put that on there as well in chinese at the top.

 

We also chose Black Nickel as our primary finish because Midnight is a Black Lab/Border Collie mix, and is pretty much entirely black. It is a sandblasted finish so that you can actually see it, we have one non-sandblasted BN sample and it is almost impossible to read.

 

I also designed the World Travel geocoin (the one with all the holes and the animated icon). I wanted there to be an inexpensive coin, that wasn't going to be a limited edition like all the others had been. OakCoins was nice enough to accept the project. The holes around the world are feet, the idea being that they would travel around the world by foot. I call the LE edition the Midnight edition, for our pup, and the fact the outer ring is black to represent midnight. the regular, I refer to as the Day edition... blue sky... The regular edition is available for purchase still (and hopefully forever) at the site listed on the coins I still don't understand why the regular edition continues to sell on e-bay over list price.

[+CoinsAndPins]

This is a great subject. Thanks Shop99er for starting it.

 

 

This coin represents the following:

 

* Colors: The coin and the pin both glow in the dark for night caching.

* Night sky with coins coming out of a cache: I love to find coins in caches, and night time for...well, night caching again.

* Aircraft: The aircraft is an E-3 aircraft which I spent 12 years maintaining in the Air Force. It is most appropriate since this aircraft searches out stealthy aircraft like we search for stealthy caches. I now work on different types of aircraft.

* Night vision goggles: I sometimes use these on night hunts.

* Coin and pin combo: obviously because my user name is CoinsAndPins

* The phrase "Seeking for coins coins in caches" means I enjoy finding coins in caches. Is is also for the Reinforcement Agent coins I have released in the wild whose missions are to find lost geocoins.

[+Shop99er]

The first Shop99er coin was:

 

 

The second Shop99er coin, The Shirt, was/is:

 

 

The third Shop99er coin, coming out in 2007 is...

[+*Tumbleweed*]

 

Hi everyone,

 

I lived most of my life in Texas and now live in North Carolina. The design on the front of my coin represents a consolidated design of both states. “Caching Lone Star Style” is because of the Texan in me, and because both state flags have a single star. The three feathers symbolize each of my children. Both the feathers and design also symbolize the American Indian blood in me. The ‘spiky’ look represents a spiky tumbleweed.

 

The back with the compass design is because I love compasses and wanted to have lots of detail on the coin. The phrase on the back is because I hope to some day travel to many countries and visit their caches.

[+Kealia]

 

There's the picture!

[+Rattlingcrew]

 

I like the benchmark game too, kind of neat to go find them. I have not done a personal coin yet, but this will be the first. The white Shepherd on the back is Bud, my caching partner. He is a great friend and always willing to go. The logs and forums are full of his photos. The face of the coin is an adultered benchmark. There actually is a benchmark named BUD that is on a friend's property, Bud Turner. We used to go out to Bud's fishing all the time when I was a kid. They surveyed his pasture when the military set a missile silo in the north end of it. We used to sneak up to the fence and peak through, like we were going to see anything! Anyway, it is a combination of old family history, my caching partner and the benchmark game. We changed the warning from $250 fine or imprisonment for disturbing this mark to $250 dollar fine or imprisonment for leaving your Bud at home and the date on the benchmark from 1961 to 2006 to reflect that it was a personal mark, not a historical one.

 

Not sure if I'll even sell this one, it is just for fun.

 

Glen

[ATMouse]

With new coins coming out all the time, I'd love to hear/read some of the stories behind them, so I'm bumping this back up!

[+Kealia]

Nice bump. My newest coin is a local-only coin that is designed as a reward/trphy for doing something.

 

It has our local "GBA" on it (Geocachers of the Bay Area) as well as a caption that is often heard while out caching.

 

I plan on posting a picture later, but it's a coin that has to be earned by doing something (ala the Ape coin).

 

Details forthcoming this evening...

[danoshimano]

 

My coin brings together three of my hobbies: Mountain biking (since 1996), coin collecting (since the 1970s), and geocaching of course.

 

The image on the coin is me, in an actual event in 1996 about to put an early end to my first season of mountain biking.

 

I have more information HERE if anyone is interested.

[+GBOTS]

 

My coin brings together three of my hobbies: Mountain biking (since 1996), coin collecting (since the 1970s), and geocaching of course.

 

The image on the coin is me, in an actual event in 1996 about to put an early end to my first season of mountain biking.

 

I have more information HERE if anyone is interested.

 

Hey, I want one of these! Please...

[+Rattlingcrew]

Me too, I looked through his trader list though and do not have any that he is seeking. That is the story of my life! Glen

[danoshimano]

Email sent via profiles to GBOTS and RattlingCrew!

[+islander1988]

Okay, my turn.

 

 

The lighthouse on the front of my coin is the lighthouse on the island I grew up on (which is also where my Islander handle comes from). The fish symbols around my caching name are both to signify my coming from a fishing community and the fact I'm a Christian. The schooner on the back is a tribute to the Bluenose, which was built in my county and is on the Canadian dime.

[delta123]

Here's some input from The Netherlands.

 

 

I really liked the idea of having my own geocoin after seeing al those personal coins from the States. Twin Peaks was the first in Holland and quite a few have followed.

 

As you can see my coin has a maritime theme. I have a dozen caches around the harbour of Rotterdam. I called them Ketelbinkie #1-#12. Ketelbinkie is a Dutch tale of a young lad who served on a dutch cargovessel to the east-indies. He feels very lonely and after getting sick he dies, and goes overboard. From this old tale a song was made in the 1950's. Its a shanty song and every Ductchman knows this song. The text on the coin is from the lyrics. Translated it says:

When we left Rotterdam

with the Edam, an old vessel

We had a young lad

As Ketelbinkie on board

That streetboy from Rotterdam

 

You can listen to the song if you click here

Even now on every ship the youngest member of the crew is often called "Ketelbinkie".

 

When I started geocaching I didn't put much fhought in my nickname, now I would have chosen another one. Luuk is my mate on my caching trips. Because of him i started this. So that's why he is also mentioned on the coin under the bone.

 

I am thinking of making another coin with the same buoy but then with Ketelbinkie in 3D in the middle.

 

Thanks for starting this thread!

[+ScoutingWV]

My avatar (and soon my coin) ties together several things for me.

 

I am a native West Virginian and have been involved in Scouting for about 30 years. I also have a degree in civil engineering. Scouting has been a strong element in my family. My father has been active for over 60 years. My son is an Eagle Scout with a bronze palm and an OA Founder's Award recipient. The fleur-de-lis is one of the Scouting design elements. The other is the red arrow and bars. They represent my Brotherhood membership in the Order of the Arrow, it's been called the "national honor society" of Scouting. Of course, I have the state of WV shown. The compass ring is for Scouting, geocaching and my engineering interest.