Coins and personal chop marks?

[Moun10eer]

I've been thinking about geocoins and how they travel.

 

Lately I've been thinking it would be neat if each coin could tell a little bit of a story itself instead of relying entirely on an external website.

 

Old silver and gold coins were often tested for their purity with chop marks many of which had differing designs. I'm not sure how many times a typical geocoin gets transported but I think it would be neat if geocachers each had a personal chop mark and stamped the coin when they found it. Instead of marks in random locations, the coin could have a grid of some sort to order the chop marks. I'm sure the Alaska and Nevada .999 silver coins can be chopped but I'm not sure about the base metals versions.

 

What do you think? Would it be cool to see who's found the coin from just looking at it?

[+Renegade Knight]

Probably not practical. First silver and gold are softer than coins and second my chop mark is a 7.62mm round shot through the coin. There are only so many chop marks you can do before the coin is not so much a coin anymore. Icing on the cake is that the coin owner may consider it defacing. However it's an interesting idea and people can send out coins inviting chopmarks.

[+CJPJ]

That is a GREAT idea! Very classic.

[Team Macha]

my chop mark is a 7.62mm round shot through the coin. There are only so many chop marks you can do before the coin is not so much a coin anymore.

Rofl

[+tiki]

Such a neat idea!

 

Santa brought me a coin this year that is a perfect example of chop marks on coins. It is an 1804 silver 8 reales coin (also known as a "pillar dollar" for the pillars of hercules on the reverse). You can see it is riddled with chop marks that track its minting, assaying, and eventual travels through the trade routes into china:

 

 

Here is a link to a great site about chinese chop marks on coins:

 

http://www.sycee-on-line.com/Spanish_cobs.htm

 

it would be really neat to place marks on a geocoin like this, but it would need a bit of effort from everyone - and I imagine not too many folks would want their coins getting all stamped up. A great tool for placing microstamps on metal objects can be found here:

 

http://www.microstampusa.com/

 

Geocoin chop marks are a great idea - even if it never comes to fruition it is neat to think about the possibilities!

 

Tiki

[57chevy]

Wow, Thanks! I had seen coins with them before but never gave much thought to chop marks. This really gets the ol' gears turning for the geocoin application. Oh and by the way if you find any of mine in the wild feel free to chop away. -57'

[+UOTrackers]

Wow that is so neat. I've seen those marks before but never knew what they were, thanks for the lesson. I think it would be very cool to have a coin travel collecting these marks!

[+Degai]

Wow! That is totally awesome! I have heard of Chinese Chop Marks, but I thought they were just signatures for pieces of artwork. I had no idea that they were used for coins. I love the coin pictured in the forum. Thanks for the information. I always love to find interesting tidbits of trivia.

[+wyohunter]

I have to agree with the others here. That is a really cool thing to learn. Not sure if others would like there coins marked up but since those chop marks are not the 7.62mm, I could live with that! Thanks for the idea and lesson!

Edited January 2, 2007 by wyohunter

[+tasaint]

I LOVE it. I would love to have mine "defaced" this way.

I doubt they are coming home anyway, they

are just travelling around being interesting, no?

 

This makes them more interesting, and makes them

owned by everybody, sort of. And maybe less

appealing to theft.

[+Cach-U-Nuts]

This is such a GREAT idea!! We LOVE it!!!

 

The stamp is small and can travel right in our caching pack -

 

For those who would rather not have their actual coin marked, they could attach a blank metal dogtag where each cacher who moves the coin could make their 'custom' mark on the tag!

 

Thanks Tiki for the great info!

 

Mrs Cachu

[Moun10eer]

I imagine not too many folks would want their coins getting all stamped up.

It seems like a number of people would like to have them marked up which I think is a great, especially if the stamps are from individual geocachers.

A great tool for placing microstamps on metal objects can be found here:

 

http://www.microstampusa.com/

Have you tried any of the products there? Any recommendation on which of their stamps would be the best? If not, I might give them a call and discuss the application with them and see what they recommend.

[+fox-and-the-hound]

Mentioned this to Fox over the weekend and we came up with an idea that just might work out for any round coin. We're going to make a large aluminum washer (approx 6 inches across) on the lathe and use a bore drill head to mill out a hole approximately 3/1000ths smaller than the actual coin. We'll use a rubber mallet to tap the coin in and a little jbweld or something similar to hold it secure. The aluminum ring should be more than soft enough to easily scratch a personal mark or tap a personal die into it. I like your chop marks directly on the coin, but for a coin like ours where it's almost all enamel this might be a good alternative

[+Cornerstone4]

First off, let's be careful before you go out and start marking every coin you see.

 

(I for one, wouldn't really like my coins marked.

 

Second, have any of you tried this on your coins yet? All of the coins I have had made have a bronze base, which is much harder that the coin pictured. The gold or silver plating on our coins is very soft, but the base metal is hard.

 

I had that batch of coins I wanted to strike the number from since they were duplicated. I went to our machine shop and got one of their metal "X" stamps that they used for stamping steel parts. After striking over the numbers on about 30 coins, the "X" became distorted and had to be replaced for shop use!

[Moun10eer]

First off, let's be careful before you go out and start marking every coin you see.

 

I for one, wouldn't really like my coins marked.

I agree. One should only chop coins belonging to people that have specifically given the okay. Maybe there should be a list of people interested in this? I'm interested in people chopping my geocoins but I'm still working on a design and that will require other people to get stamps so it's not a guarantee it will fly.

Second, have any of you tried this on your coins yet? All of the coins I have had made have a bronze base, which is much harder that the coin pictured. The gold or silver plating on our coins is very soft, but the base metal is hard.

 

I had that batch of coins I wanted to strike the number from since they were duplicated. I went to our machine shop and got one of their metal "X" stamps that they used for stamping steel parts. After striking over the numbers on about 30 coins, the "X" became distorted and had to be replaced for shop use!

I don't have a stamps to test with yet which is why I asked. Once I get one/some I'll try some experiments. Good information on your experiences. Thanks for posting it. Edited January 3, 2007 by Moun10eer

[+tiki]

Second, have any of you tried this on your coins yet? All of the coins I have had made have a bronze base, which is much harder that the coin pictured. The gold or silver plating on our coins is very soft, but the base metal is hard.

 

I have never tried using a micro stamp - but their website says the hardened steel stamps "work great on metals such as brass, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, stainless, aluminum, and most plastics too".

 

I like the idea of attaching a blank aluminium dogtag to your coin - perfect for people to mark up! Looks like I may have to order up a microstamp and some dog tags.....

 

Tiki

[+ChadsClan]

I think this is a great idea. I'd love to get a "stamp" and add marks to coins -- with the owner's approval. But even better, I think a specific "chop" coin could be made. Here's my idea: Make a coin that looks like a meat cleaver. and since they usually have a hole in the upper corner, you could use that to attach a tag. Then people could add their "chop" to you tag and not your coin, if you so choose. Anyway, if any of you artistic types out there want to sketch that up, feel free. Or if you feel it's a flop, don't bother.

[+pirate_matt]

I'm watching this topic with interest. not sure how it will work at the moment but think it could be good.

[+tasaint]

I think the coins it would work worst on -- or would BREAK -- would be the

mechanical geocoins with moving parts like the magic geocoin (you know,

like magic eight-ball) or the spinning GPS thingy. I don't think you could

warn everybody NOT to mark those -- but who sees those specialties in the wild,

anyway?

 

I think once people let theirs go in the wild, they don't really care much.

The ones they hold near and dear stay at home and get to visit events,

or get sent out as copies. Worse things happen in the wild than a chop mark.

 

T

Edited January 3, 2007 by tasaint

[+fairyhoney]

Or just make a coin with chop marks on it as part of the design!?!

[+Kealia]

Thanks but no thanks. If I wanted my coins defaced or marked up I'd do it myself. In reality, the chop mark is what the online log is today - a record of who has touched the coin or where it has gone.

 

The online logs serve this purpose and are just fine with me.