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Geocoins going missing abroad


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My son, who is 7, owns, or rather owned two geocoins - both of which have gone missing whilst on the continent.

 

The first we released in Spain a year ago - in that time it has only visited about 4/5 caches and has now disappeared without trace from a cache in Portugal.

 

The second was released in Scotland In February with a mission to go to Germany. The cacher who retrieved the coin from the Scottish cache managed to take it straight to a cache in Germany, where it has now gone missing from, so the coin had only ever visited two caches and had only been in circulation for less than two months.

 

Is this a typical experience for geocins that end up in Europe or is it just that we have had particularly bad luck?

 

I have just acquired a new geocoin for him (long story - I have never bought one before - the two that have gone missing were won in competitions) but I am reluctant to send it out now given what has happened to the others. We don't collect them though so I would rather send it out for others to find. Would it be better to state on it's mission that it is to be kept in the UK or do coins go missing just as much here?

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So far I have been lucky as none of my Geocoins and only one TB has gone missing - don't know how long this will last though as the whereabouts of another TB is looking doubtful.

 

6 of my geocoins have departed our safe shores and travelled around the globe and are spread over 5 different countries (USA, Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Italy and Jersey). At the moment they appear to be safe and travelling like they should. So may be it was just bad luck, or could it be the coins have being dropped into a cache and not logged? I had a TB disappear for 6 months after being placed into a rarely visited cache and not logged before being found again :laughing: .

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We have 2 geocoins and a TB out at present. One geocoin went off to the continent and travelled around between Germany and the Netherlands. It was picked up in Feb and noted it would be quickly moved on. Come mid-April I sent a wee e-mail asking politely if the holder still had it as I was checking it hadn't gone AWOL. Lo, it appeared in a cache very soon afterwards. I sent a thank you e-mail , I was so pleased!

Coin 2 went down to England. it was picked up in Nov '06 and despite an e-mail asking if they still had it, it didn't move. In April I again e-mailed the holder ( I saw he'd been on the geocaching site in March) and still had no reply so I was prepared to write it off as a loss. Well, next thing I know it appears in a CITO event in Montana! I think someone picked it up in a cache where it wasn't noted as being present and then shifted it to Montana.

Unfortunately our TB seems to have disappeared in Germany. It was maybe a bit cute and someone has taken a liking to it, but given it had a whacking great sign attached and a TB dogtag, you have to wonder at folk allowing their wean to appropriate it! The owner of the cache tried to find out where it had gone and notified us of its absence ( which was above and beyond, we thought, given we didn't know it was AWOL) but all attempts have failed. Never mind, we'll just have to hope that someone rediscovers it and moves it on.

It is particularly galling when it's a coin your kids have sent out, as I know our tribe enjoy following the travels on a map and it is a grand way of encouraging an interest in geography.

 

We enjoy finding coins in caches and move them on within weeks. if we can't move them on then we admire them and leave them for someone else. If anything untoward occurs we contact the holder and let them know of any delay in moving the coin.

 

We buy coins because Maw likes sparkly things :laughing: but we tend to buy in 2s so that we can keep one and release the other ( having said that we haven't released any this year). Now we are in a quandry as we like seeing undrilled coins but think that drilling and attaching a keyring with a "This is not a swap" makes it more likely that the coin will keep moving.

What do others think; drilled or intact?

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One of mine "went missing" presumed stolen at an event in Holland. Others have gone in the UK too.

Recently, I have taken to drilling a hole and attaching a laminated card with its mission profile. This won't dissuade muggles, but may put off unscrupulous geocachers. Unfortunately, some of our caching colleagues are not to be trusted. :lol::)

 

New coins I have now only go to events that I attend and can be "discovered" by friends only. It's pretty mean by me but I've lost too many alrady to be caught out again.

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Our coins on the continent seem to be the ones that get moved about more often. As far as I can remember we haven't had any go missing over there and once they get to the Germany/Switzerland /Belguim area cachers seem to be falling over themselves to log them? We had one that was reported missing from a cache in Luxembourg last month which then turned up in Belguim but i think that is as close to losing a coin on the continent that we have come.

 

All coins we send out are undrilled, some have mission statements in their slip cases but since we just want to keep the coins moving we aren't too bothered about where they go/what they do. :laughing:

 

I dont really see the point of drilling coins though. If its to attach a mission tag, it just makes the coin harder to place in a small cache and if its to deter thieves - Why?? Are there really cachers out there who have vast collections of stolen lumps of metal? Emmm what do they do with them???? Look at them???? :D:laughing:

A lot of the coins we have bought have been cheaper than TB tags so its not like we are sending out items of value.

Perhaps a lot of the missing coins are ones that have slipped down to the bottom of cachers bags only to be found after 6 months or so of not logging them out the cache they were found in and are too embarrased to admit to it? :D

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I don't buy them anymore, costs to much to supply other peoples collections.
I still buy one now and then. I hang on to them for a while and when whim takes me I release one into the wild. I suppose I have been lucky so far, but it's like betting.. if you can't afford to lose one...

 

Jon

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My brother is currently having problems with a fellow cacher in the uk who picked up one of his coins from a cache bash nearly 2 months ago. Although that cacher has been to nearly 100 caches since then they still have not dropped it off and when he emails them they imply he is in the wrong by asking them to drop the coin off to continue on its journey. The cache bash organiser even gave him a mouthful before the curent holders logged it. She told him that geocachers dont have time to check the missions of coins they pick up and in the last log on the event someone else is asking what has happened to all the TB's and coins. Is it time to name and shame??

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My brother is currently having problems with a fellow cacher in the uk who picked up one of his coins from a cache bash nearly 2 months ago. Although that cacher has been to nearly 100 caches since then they still have not dropped it off and when he emails them they imply he is in the wrong by asking them to drop the coin off to continue on its journey. The cache bash organiser even gave him a mouthful before the curent holders logged it. She told him that geocachers dont have time to check the missions of coins they pick up and in the last log on the event someone else is asking what has happened to all the TB's and coins. Is it time to name and shame??

 

As long as it isn't us :blink:

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