Travel the World!

[+Lemon Fresh Dog]

Ah.....if only we could "hide" in our Traveller item's suitcases....if they had suitcases...

 

Anyhow,

 

My next quesitons! (for fun)

 

1) Do you release travelling coins?

2) Do you release regualar tagged travellers?

3) What is your experience of both? Distances, loss rates, reactions from folks, etc....

 

This is an area of the game I really enjoy (I release both and find tags generally travel more, but coins get better reactions personally). I'm interested in others opinions.

 

(part of the reason I ask this is that it seems the geocoin forum is one of the busiest and the travel bug area is actually pretty quiet. Why is that?

[+Let's Look Over Thayer]

1) Do you release travelling coins?

2) Do you release regualar tagged travellers?

3) What is your experience of both? Distances, loss rates, reactions from folks, etc....

1) Not any more. They disappear too quickly. I know others have had better luck -- I've found coins myself that have thousands of miles on them -- but mine always seem to disappear within 5 hops.

2) Yes.

3) Bad luck with coins.

Good luck with proxy coins but I don't do this anymore. Most finders were understanding but a couple cachers let me know in no uncertain terms that they didn't approve. It wasn't worth the grief.

Good luck with regular TBs. Most go for several thousand miles before disappearing.

[+Windrose]

Ah.....if only we could "hide" in our Traveller item's suitcases....if they had suitcases...

1) Do you release travelling coins?

2) Do you release regualar tagged travellers?

3) What is your experience of both? Distances, loss rates, reactions from folks, etc....

 

The only coins I've released were the 3 for the Grand Experiment. They all went missing very quickly.

 

I put out several TBs when I started caching. Out of 14 TBs - 8 have disappeared. Some disappeared right away (usually picked up by a newbie). Some of the missing ones I replaced and sent out again. A couple of the replaced TBs disappeared more than once (Dexter Hampster is on his 4th life -- he's just too cute I guess. He keeps getting stolen).

 

But I have 3 that have gone many miles and are still going strong. Your Worst Day (17,000 miles) Dogbert (almost 13,000 miles), My Pointy Haired Boss (10,000 miles), Dogbert and the Boss have both lasted longer than I thought they would. Another TB (Bobby Goes Swimming) traveled over 17,000 miles before he disappeared.

 

Windrose

[+Dr. Whoever]

40 Coins released (only 4 missing in action)

24 bugs released (3 MIA)

 

Not bad compaired to some.

 

I'm still going to continue to release both. Too much fun not to. Hopefully a few bad "jerk" cachers out there who steal thing won't spoil the game.

[+CKayaks]

 

1) Do you release travelling coins?

2) Do you release regualar tagged travellers?

3) What is your experience of both? Distances, loss rates, reactions from folks, etc....

 

 

Just some rough numbers off the top of my head...

 

1) Have somewhere around 200 coins circulating. (Plus another several hundred of my personal coins that are not trackable.)

2) Less than a dozen TB's.

3) The loss rate on the TB's is actually much higher than the trackable coins. I think only four or five are still active. Not counting ones where the caches were washed out to sea (seriously!), I have only had about ten of the coins go missing so far. That said, I have drilled nearly every one of the coins that I have released and attached a tag with its mission.

[+BlueDeuce]

(part of the reason I ask this is that it seems the geocoin forum is one of the busiest and the travel bug area is actually pretty quiet. Why is that?)

 

TB's are personal items. In general terms there is only one bug like mine. On occasion you have races between other cachers.

 

TB postings tend to be practical questions, how do I?, can I?, ect.

 

Coins are community items. In general terms everybody has the same one.

 

Geocoins postings tend to what do you think of this coin? Announcing this coin, who wants to trade?, etc. The how do I?, can I? questions are probably at the same volume as TBs.

 

(I release both and find tags generally travel more, but coins get better reactions personally).

 

I guess I’m not sure what you mean by better reactions. I’d rather see the TB goal fulfilled than people telling me what a cool coin it is. Just my preference.

[+Ryder3 & Better Half]

Ah.....if only we could "hide" in our Traveller item's suitcases....if they had suitcases...

 

Anyhow,

 

My next quesitons! (for fun)

 

1) Do you release travelling coins?

2) Do you release regualar tagged travellers?

3) What is your experience of both? Distances, loss rates, reactions from folks, etc....

 

This is an area of the game I really enjoy (I release both and find tags generally travel more, but coins get better reactions personally). I'm interested in others opinions.

 

(part of the reason I ask this is that it seems the geocoin forum is one of the busiest and the travel bug area is actually pretty quiet. Why is that?

 

 

1.YES!! we have released a bunch of coins,most with good results.(We have also released dozens of coins for others,that are also doing well!

 

2.Not lately,but we have a few out.(We even hear from a couple of them once in a while!LOL!)

 

3.Overall,a lot of fun to get the E-Mails from our travelers,we had a couple with 10,000+ miles,but alas,they are gone.We have not lost enough of them to quit sending them out.People really love finding a coin!

 

Have a GREAT Day!!

[BRTango]

Ah.....if only we could "hide" in our Traveller item's suitcases....if they had suitcases...

 

Anyhow,

 

My next quesitons! (for fun)

 

1) Do you release travelling coins?

2) Do you release regualar tagged travellers?

3) What is your experience of both? Distances, loss rates, reactions from folks, etc....

 

This is an area of the game I really enjoy (I release both and find tags generally travel more, but coins get better reactions personally). I'm interested in others opinions.

 

(part of the reason I ask this is that it seems the geocoin forum is one of the busiest and the travel bug area is actually pretty quiet. Why is that?

 

1) I've release 3 coins into the wild so far. Two disappeared shortly after being placed in their first cache. The third was logged and will hopefully continue its travels.

 

I'll be releasing a fourth sometime this week.

 

2) So far I've released 5 TBs. The first one (much like the coins) disappeared from its first cache without even being logged. The other four have been traveling quite a bit. One has been international for quite some time. One of these is in the hands of a cacher who seems to have dropped off for a while. I do hold out hope that it will continue its travels, but if not... it did well.

 

3) As you can see, my experience is limited and Travel Bugs certainly travel further.

 

On a side note, I am preparing to release about 27 Travel Bugs as a part of my "Nations of the World" TB series. Their goals are to travel to and in every country I've visited and/or lived. I'm sure that many of them will not travel much (Iraq, Kuwait, Bosnia, Thailand)... but have hopes that other will travel a good bit. I'm looking forward to it either way.

[+Kealia]

1) Do you release travelling coins?

 

Yep. I like seeing where they end up and enjoy reading the "thanks for sharing this coin" logs.

 

2) Do you release regualar tagged travellers?

 

Yep - these, too. I think about 8 or so to date.

 

3) What is your experience of both? Distances, loss rates, reactions from folks, etc....

Coins seem to go missing more, but even then the rates aren't too bad. My "Precious" TB has logged quite a few miles and I think some people enjoy logging/moving that one just because it's "personal" to me! I tend to get logs on the coins like "grat coin, never saw one before" or something similar so it's nice to see. I recall finding my first USA and Oregon coins in caches and just thought it was cool. I wanted to give back so I put coins out there, too.

 

(part of the reason I ask this is that it seems the geocoin forum is one of the busiest and the travel bug area is actually pretty quiet. Why is that?

 

Honestly, I think it's because of the sales. If there were no posts of geocoin sales in these boards I think you'd hear the same crickets chirping over here on a lot of days.

 

That, and some people in here are really bull-headed and likely provide some entertainment for others.

[avroair]

1) Do you release travelling coins?

2) Do you release regualar tagged travellers?

3) What is your experience of both? Distances, loss rates, reactions from folks, etc....

 

1. not anymore --- they go missing

2. I have some travel bugs out there but no released for a while

3. coins go missing or move quickly depending on where they were placed --- nobody really writes anything in the logs when they have found them, just "will move along shortly"

 

My prized Buy Avroair a Beer coin, the one I get more reactions from has ventured out in a while.

[+tokencollector]

Ah.....if only we could "hide" in our Traveller item's suitcases....if they had suitcases...

1) Do you release travelling coins?

2) Do you release regualar tagged travellers?

3) What is your experience of both? Distances, loss rates, reactions from folks, etc....

 

 

1 - Yes, ~140 to date

 

2 - Yes, 13 to date

 

3 -

 

Distances: The coins are picked up more quickly than the TBs. My higest distance TBs are geocoins. I have several that have made one or more international jumps which really runs up the mileage. The highest mileage coin went to Japan, bounced around there for a while then came back to the US. Due to the shorter time spent waiting in a cache to be picked up, the log rate is also much higher for the geocoins as well.

 

Loss rate: I've had both coins and traditional TBs dissapear from the cache where I placed them. The loss rate is probably similar for coins and traditional TBs, though I suspect that the coins last a bit longer in the wild. The loss rate for both types of TB has decreased some in the last year. I drill most of the coins that I release and attach either a TB buddy tag or a mission card. I suspect that those might decrease the loss rate, but I've moved many coins that just sit in a cache without anything attached. When I check on them to see how they are doing, they seem to be moving well too.

 

The coins with the highest loss rate are the small sized micro-coins (NC Micro, TX micro). They may be just too small. I've read one cache log where the finder misplaced the NC micro coin. The ~1" microcoins seem to move pretty well without additional tags.

 

Missing coins appear to disappear for a number of reasons (some of which are common to TBs). Coins have been lost from muggled TB/coin prisons. I've had a couple dissappear into event caches. Sometime those show up somewhere else, sometimes they appear to be lost or stolen. I've had a few coins dissappear from the cache in which they were initially placed - that happened earlier in 2006. Some coins are picked up by new cachers and take a friendly e-mail to get them moving again. Others appear to have been misplaced or improperly logged.

 

Reactions: Most common comments are thanks for the icon, thanks for sharing the coin, and acknowledgement of the mission and a pledge to help it on its way. All the "trackables owned" in my profile are travellers that have been released or are awaiting release. That is a good place to gauge reaction to coins in the wild. Many of the geocoin logs are "discovered" logs. That can be a bit frustrating, as I want my coin to move - but even with the discovered logs they move pretty well.

 

Etc: Geocoins usually don't cost much more than a TB dog tag and its associated item. They travel well, dissappear occasionally, and are well received when found in caches. I also find it easier to prep a geocoin for travel than a traditional TB. I intend to keep releasing them for some time to come. (I have well over 100 awaiting activation for travel.)