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Friends of Caching #1 - Portneuf Greenway Foundation

Renegade Knight

By Renegade Knight
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Renegade Knight

+Renegade Knight

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The Friends of Caching Series was conceived as a means to take the geocoin craze and do some good for caching and for the land owners who make our activity possible. A token thanks and perhaps some encouragement to be cache friendly. A portion of the funds from sales goes to the land manager or land owner who actively supports caching. You can cut to the order part by skipping below the === line.

 

The first coin is The Portneuf Greenway Foundation. The greenway is a non profit corporation who’s mission is to build paths that connect the community. When I first moved to my new town, I decided to get permission from the Greenway for caches on their paths. I called them out of the blue, talked about geocaching, appeared before the board and made my speech. An approach that typically just invites questions and creates a ban or rules. The board liked the idea each member gave me a yes and that was that. There was no formal vote, caching was approved just like that. A couple of years later they hired a new Executive Director and I figured it was time to re-introduce myself. She beat me too it when she introduced herself at a public meeting regarding one of my projects that would impact one of the greenways paths. After the meeting the idea for the coin came up. I called her up we made a lunch date and discussed caching, the coin, and the greenway. She asked about the Rainbow Bridge (a widely known cache incident in Idaho) and I talked about that as well. When it was over she liked the idea, liked caching on the greenway, and knew more about the Rainbow Bridge. She went to the board of directors got their support and wrote a letter of support for caching. I started on the coin and started work on a task force to keep the series going.

 

About then life throw a bunch of fate cards my direction that took most all my time and the coin moved very slowly. Now all the pieces are in place and we are ready to take pre-orders for the first coin. We are taking pre-orders through February 6th.

 

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Friends of Caching #1. The Portneuf Greenway Foundation.

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This coin is 42mm by 4mm thick. The finish is antiqued brass as illustrated below.

Tracking or Numbering is on the edge of the coin. The coin has one version but options for numbering or tracking. We are working a bit on the reeds to better match the PGF Logo.

 

Prices for the Friends of Caching #1 coin are:

 

Geocaching.com trackable 9.99 each.

Terracachers.org Numbered 8.49

 

Shipping & Handling is:

1 – 1.53

2 – 2.01

3 – 2.49

4 – 2.97

5 – 3.45

6 – 3.93

7-20 – 4.50

 

Send your pre-order quantity to: Idahogreenwaygeocoin@hotmail.com. Specify which tracking option you want. You will be invoiced when pre-orders are closed and we are ready to order coins. If anyone misses the cut off they will be put on a waiting list. Sample coins and errors if any will be retained and used later but hopefully there are no errors. The Greenway plans on ordering some coins for their own use.

 

Note: The price is based on 500 coins. If less coins are ordered the price will go up a bit to cover the fixed die costs. The cost breakdown is below.

 

5.22 Coin + Die

1.50 for GC.com tracking.

1.00 for the GoTo Girls to pack and ship. They use the money for local projects I’ve suggested the greenway for this payment.

2.02. Goes to the Portneuf greenway foundation. Cost overruns or surplus funds go here.

0.25 for the friends of caching committee (members needed). funds to keep this program going in the long haul.

 

(I did get permission to post the non trackable version)

Edited by Renegade Knight
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Renegade Knight

+Renegade Knight

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Me too: I will take 2 of each type made. Thanks for supporting such a good cause!!

 

Just to clarify a bit.

 

Send pre-orders here: Idahogreenwaygeocoin@hotmail.com

The GoTo girls are the ones doing the actual pre-orders, though I suspect I'll be helping pack and ship.

 

Also there is only one coin. No different metals or finishes. I thought it best to keep it simple. What does change is tracking and numbering. You have options that will be laser engraved on the edge of the coin. That's why the order needs to say what tracking/numbering option you would like.

 

Thanks for your interest! :laughing:

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Kealia

+Kealia

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This is really a sad statement. Coins that have nothing to do with caching are selling 250 or more and this coin for a good cause is only at 40?

 

Where are all the collectors? Where are all the people who have made plenty of moeny on selling thier coins?

 

This is a project that would help spread goodwill and build relationships with land managers for all cachers and this is the best we can do to support it?

 

I'd like to see the community rally around this one like everybody did during Christmas and for all the other good causes out there.

 

Consider this a bump for a good cause.

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GPX Navigators

+GPX Navigators

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This is really a sad statement. Coins that have nothing to do with caching are selling 250 or more and this coin for a good cause is only at 40?

 

Where are all the collectors? Where are all the people who have made plenty of moeny on selling thier coins?

 

This is a project that would help spread goodwill and build relationships with land managers for all cachers and this is the best we can do to support it?

 

I'd like to see the community rally around this one like everybody did during Christmas and for all the other good causes out there.

 

Consider this a bump for a good cause.

 

We ordered the other day. Was glad RK had put it back to the top again as I knew we wanted them but could not remember coin name or who had put it up. This is a great idea and a great way to expose the community at large to the pluses of geocaching. We need as many positive spins for geocaching that we can get since all people remember is the negative, which the press always plays up. Coins like this are worthy of the community suporting them. So the btt was great and here is another btt.

 

And RK, hope you can get a positive press article done in your area for this great project, if you haven't done so already. :ph34r:

Edited by GPX Navigators
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Renegade Knight

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I've been curious about this one for awhile and I'm still wondering about the final die art. We'll be in for a few, but still waiting on that updated art. :ph34r:

The art that will be used to make the die is at the top of the page. They updated it directly and so the links show the updated image (ignore the coinable.com logo...).

 

If that's not what you mean send me a PM. This is my first coin so I may not be thinking the same as you on what you mean.

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fox-and-the-hound

+fox-and-the-hound

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I've been curious about this one for awhile and I'm still wondering about the final die art. We'll be in for a few, but still waiting on that updated art. :D

The art that will be used to make the die is at the top of the page. They updated it directly and so the links show the updated image (ignore the coinable.com logo...).

 

If that's not what you mean send me a PM. This is my first coin so I may not be thinking the same as you on what you mean.

 

Oh, ok, thanks! I saw an old (kinda rough) image the last time I looked and then never saw it again. I figured it would be back with finished artwork eventually. Hard or soft enamel (just curious)? Sending our pre-order now. :D

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chamois-shimi & special K

+chamois-shimi & special K

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"First coin" seems to imply that if things work out, this series would continue. Any off-the-cuff thoughts as to how future organizations might be selected if this carries on?

 

Really nice to see a coin supporting the local agencies that let us proceed with this pastime of chasing after little containers of plastic and metal.

 

-SK

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Renegade Knight

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...Really nice to see a coin supporting the local agencies that let us proceed with this pastime of chasing after little containers of plastic and metal.

 

-SK

 

I'd like to get a committee set up to accept nominations. Members of the committee would take turns spearheading a coin. At first it may be all we can do to get nominations but if this grows a bit, we may have to filter them out.

 

Orignally I was going to try for a coin every other month, but quarterly is looking more reasonable. Maybe even twice a year. Even if we did have enough nominations and interest for monthly I think that would just be too much.

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Renegade Knight

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Last check we had about 70 coins ordered. There are a few days left for pre-orders.

 

Just curious - was there supposed to be a response such as "got your pre-order request, thanks" to the pre-order we made? We never received one and wanted to be sure that we had been counted.

 

Thanks much,

 

-SK

 

There should be. I'll email the Go To Girls tonight and remind them to send out the confirmation

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AtlantaGal

+AtlantaGal

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We are close to closing the period for pre-orders. Just a few days left. :blink:

 

It looks like we will break 100 coins. Not quite the 500 I was hoping for, but enough to make this project viable. I'm hoping to start a task force to work on the next coin in the near future. I'd like this to be a community based effort in the long run.

 

Have you considered a different/alternative method for selling them? Like maybe partnering with the vendor who is making them and selling 250 (or whatever amount) via their online store? The money could be donated directly to the greenway and the coin would get a lot more exposure that way. Just an idea.

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Kealia

+Kealia

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We are close to closing the period for pre-orders. Just a few days left. :(

 

It looks like we will break 100 coins. Not quite the 500 I was hoping for, but enough to make this project viable. I'm hoping to start a task force to work on the next coin in the near future. I'd like this to be a community based effort in the long run.

 

Wow, that's disappointing - only reaching 100 when all of these other "geocoins" are selling 250 or so. Hopefully this doesn't turn into a bust for you. Maybe just limit future runs to 100? Seems that those that have bought already would want to continue the series and it may limit your cost exposure.

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Renegade Knight

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We are close to closing the period for pre-orders. Just a few days left. :(

 

It looks like we will break 100 coins. Not quite the 500 I was hoping for, but enough to make this project viable. I'm hoping to start a task force to work on the next coin in the near future. I'd like this to be a community based effort in the long run.

 

Have you considered a different/alternative method for selling them? Like maybe partnering with the vendor who is making them and selling 250 (or whatever amount) via their online store? The money could be donated directly to the greenway and the coin would get a lot more exposure that way. Just an idea.

 

When I first started I did get one vendor interested but at that time decided that I'd like to stick with a non profit to handle the distribution (The Go To Girls). They don't have the online presence that a vendor would have and maybe that hurt sales. The plus side is that they in turn donate their fee to the greenway.

 

I've saved the name of the vendor and will probably get in touch with them on another project, and Have kept the in mind for the future of this series.

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Renegade Knight

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We got the quote back from the mint. OUCH. Due to the low number of coins, they would have to sell for 14.00 each to give the Greenway the same money per coin as planned. That's much more expensive than I had planned. We have a few optiosn.

 

First we can try to sell more coins to get the cost per coin down.

We can raise the price to cover costs and at least do some good for the greenway.

We can work with the coinmaker to see about reducing the price somehow.

 

The real solution may be all three. The Go To girls will be sending en email to the peopel who have pre-ordered providing this update and asking from some feedback.

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Renegade Knight

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Update:

 

A few wrinkles crept into the mix on this coin. Long story short we only sold about 100 coins. That would have jumped the cost by 50%. After looking at it we decided to take a chance and order 300 from the mint. That still puts the price about 1.00 higher, but nowhere near the 50% cost increase. However we have to work harder to sell all 300.

 

Next when we were ready to invoice for this coin I flat out was not able to communicate anymore with the Go To Girls. Several weeks I tried to get in touch. Finally after emailing a mutual friend I got an email back and spend several more weeks to no avail. That was the one and only contact. I’m going to assume they got cold feet and take this over directly. (Do not use the email address given in the first post. Contact me directly with questions).

 

Next postal rates went up….

 

The sample coin is on the way for the approval of the Portneuf Greenway. I’ll cross check postal rates, envelopes etc and revise S&H and set the final coin price ASAP. Then I’ll invoice those who pre-ordered first. After that it’s open to everyone until all 300 are gone.

 

Thanks for your patience.

 

PS.

Dang those hotlink protections are ugly...I'll have to revise that when we get teh coins in.

Edited by Renegade Knight
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Renegade Knight

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So if we preordered way back when, you have our original orders?

I do have a spreadsheet with the original orders that The Go To girls sent me. It has everthing until the original cut off date. Anything sent after that was probably lost. Amongh other things The Go To girls had an email meltdown.

 

I have some catch up work to do, but everyone on the spreadsheet will get a direct email from me.

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