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tadpole379 personal geocoin


tadpole379

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I have been geocaching since 2004, and have recently started up a geocoin collection. I have been thinking about doing my own coin, but dont really know where to begin. I came up with a design that I like for the front of the coin, which is based on my geocaching handle tadpole379. I need some feedback on the front design: do you like it, would you want this coin for your collection, anything you would change? Also any suggestions for what to put on the back of the coin? Trackable vs nontrackable, what company to use as a mint? Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55/tadpo...egeocoinart.jpg

Edited by tadpole379
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I think that that would make a really nice coin. :laughing: You should figure out a place to put your caching name on it and if you'd like to make it trackable then you need a spot for tracking numbers and a place to say 'trackable at geocaching.com'.

 

Making it trackable and having a custom icon will increase the costs of the coins. Also being a shaped coin wil increase costs. Trackable and non-trackable seem to both do well if you have a good design. It's personal preference and whether you have the funds to do so or not.

 

Other things to consider is whether you want to sell your coin or make it trade only or both. There are a lot of good coin manufacturers out there and everyone has their favorites.

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I love the front design, I would love to have this coin in my collection, I'd do trackable, especially if they have an icon, as those sell better, from what I've heard. I used OakCoins for mine, and they were good. I would also suggest TheCachingPlace, as they are some of the nicest people you will ever meet, and will help you through any troubles you have. They're a bit more that OakCoins, but the service might be worth it.

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I have been geocaching since 2004, and have recently started up a geocoin collection. I have been thinking about doing my own coin, but dont really know where to begin. I came up with a design that I like for the front of the coin, which is based on my geocaching handle tadpole379. I need some feedback on the front design: do you like it, would you want this coin for your collection, anything you would change? Also any suggestions for what to put on the back of the coin? Trackable vs nontrackable, what company to use as a mint? Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55/tadpo...egeocoinart.jpg

 

I really like it and you did a nice job on your drawing. Definitely include your geonick, as for the back, find things that have meaning to you or things you like. Look at some of the coin sites and get some ideas. Can't wait to see how this one progresses. Have fun!

 

tsun :P

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Thanks to everyone who has replied so far.

 

I took my original sketch for the front of the coin, and played with it in photoshop to get a better idea of how it might look as a coin. I want to do this coin as a shaped coin. Depending on what I put on the back, I think it would look good in shiny gold, shiny silver/nickel, or black nickel. The black lines would be the raised parts of the metal, and the color would fill in between the lines. I like the way the colors look as they are, but I am also thinking about doing some or possibly all the coins with a translucent enamel and textured metal underneath. (Like the loggerheads christmas and Thanksgiving coins)

 

I am also working on the design for the back. I would like to make the coin trackable so it will say somewhere track on geocaching.com and there will be a space for a tracking number. I would also like to put Tadpole379 on the back, and possibly the date-2007 or my home coordinates. I printed out the front design at 1.75 inches and because of the shape of the coin, there isn't a lot of space on the back, so I need to work with it some more and see what I can come up with.

 

tadpolegeocoinart-photoshop.jpg

Edited by tadpole379
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Keep this in mind too; between the tadpole legs, will that be a cut-out or colored in? A cut-out costs more.

 

Actually taking a closer look at it, you might have 2 cut-out areas, the one between the toes too. Each cut-out is a seperate price (off the top of my head, it was like $40/$60 for each cut-out where I did mine, I had 2 cut-outs)

Edited by tsunrisebey
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I love the front design, I would love to have this coin in my collection, I'd do trackable, especially if they have an icon, as those sell better, from what I've heard.

 

Same here. Shaped Would be nice :P

 

Very unique I LIKE IT ALOT.

I would definately include your geonick to personalize it. Can't wait to see the back.

 

Steel City Babes :anicute:

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I'd like that in my collection.

 

As for tracking, if you want to sell it yourself on this forum, then you may be better to shell out the big bucks to make it trackable. But if you want to make a trading coin, my advice is to save your money. There are lots of great non-trackable personal geocoins. I have pictures of a bunch of them HERE that you can look at. As you will see, some of the best personal coins are not trackable.

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Here is my first idea for the back of the coin. I have filled in the space between the legs instead of soing a cutout to give me more space on the back. I dont know if I should so the back of the coin so that it is smooth and polished and indent the letters and words and fill them in with color, or leave a thin border around the outside edges and texture the metal that is visable and have the letters raised above the texture. I have added a place for a tracking number to go if I do make this a trackable coin. I would make the rectangle with the tracking numbers raised up or polished so it stands out from the background.

 

The dragonfly's wings are the colors of the geocaching logo to tie it in with geocaching, and the coordinates are my home coordinates.

 

tadpolegeocoinart-backcopy.jpg

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I have asked a couple of coin minting complanies for quotes, and depending on prices, I would like to mint 250 coins. 75 coins in shiny gold, 75 coins in shiny nickel/silver, 75 coins in black nickel with glow in the dark lettering on the reverse, and 25 shiny gold coins with glitter enamel on the front.

 

Also, is it worth it for a custom icon? I will most likely make the coins trackable, but do the majority of people care about an icon, or even activate the coins that they collect?

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I have asked a couple of coin minting complanies for quotes, and depending on prices, I would like to mint 250 coins. 75 coins in shiny gold, 75 coins in shiny nickel/silver, 75 coins in black nickel with glow in the dark lettering on the reverse, and 25 shiny gold coins with glitter enamel on the front.

 

Also, is it worth it for a custom icon? I will most likely make the coins trackable, but do the majority of people care about an icon, or even activate the coins that they collect?

 

Well since I stopped activating my coins for the icons, I would prefer save a little and not have the icon :rolleyes: . I know what the general masses are going to say :P .

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Here is my first idea for the back of the coin. I have filled in the space between the legs instead of soing a cutout to give me more space on the back. I dont know if I should so the back of the coin so that it is smooth and polished and indent the letters and words and fill them in with color, or leave a thin border around the outside edges and texture the metal that is visable and have the letters raised above the texture. I have added a place for a tracking number to go if I do make this a trackable coin. I would make the rectangle with the tracking numbers raised up or polished so it stands out from the background.

 

The dragonfly's wings are the colors of the geocaching logo to tie it in with geocaching, and the coordinates are my home coordinates.

 

tadpolegeocoinart-backcopy.jpg

 

I am not sure I would put my home coordinates on a coin, I am not convinced that I am that liked :rolleyes: ! That aside I really do like the design of this coin and the unlimited options you can do with colors to make this coin Bling, Bling!

Edited by Damenace
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I am not sure I would put my home coordinates on a coin, I am not convinced that I am that liked :rolleyes: ! That aside I really do like the design of this coin and the unlimited options you can do with colors to make this coin Bling, Bling!

 

I agree with Damenace on the co-ords thing. Maybe if you replaced it with a more obvious reference to where you are from (NY I recall). That way people who admire your coin would know immediately where the coin originated from. That would be more meaningful for me as a non-US cacher.

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I agree with Damenace on the co-ords thing. Maybe if you replaced it with a more obvious reference to where you are from (NY I recall). That way people who admire your coin would know immediately where the coin originated from. That would be more meaningful for me as a non-US cacher.

 

That is a good idea and it makes a lot of sense.

Here is another version of the coin back art using NY instead of my home coordinates.

tadpolegeocoinart-backNYcopy.jpg

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I agree with Damenace on the co-ords thing. Maybe if you replaced it with a more obvious reference to where you are from (NY I recall). That way people who admire your coin would know immediately where the coin originated from. That would be more meaningful for me as a non-US cacher.

 

That is a good idea and it makes a lot of sense.

Here is another version of the coin back art using NY instead of my home coordinates.

tadpolegeocoinart-backNYcopy.jpg

 

That looks great, the elimination of the coordinates made it look better.

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I agree with Damenace on the co-ords thing. Maybe if you replaced it with a more obvious reference to where you are from (NY I recall). That way people who admire your coin would know immediately where the coin originated from. That would be more meaningful for me as a non-US cacher.

 

That is a good idea and it makes a lot of sense.

Here is another version of the coin back art using NY instead of my home coordinates.

tadpolegeocoinart-backNYcopy.jpg

 

That looks great, the elimination of the coordinates made it look better.

 

Yes that is an improvement IMO. It adds to the personality of the coin.

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As opposed to commenting on the very nice coin design :D, I'll try to address your original question. I have now done both purchase and re-sell all the coins myself (1st GasCans'06 coin) and re-seller option through C&P.

 

For my first coin, it was nice to get all of those orders done myself, but it was a bit of a hassle for me track all the shipping, addressing, and postage. I bought a huge box of bubble-padded envelopes for this first project and I am still working through that box. I also bought a postal scale at the time, but later found that I could easily tell how many ounces a package was just from the # of coins in it. I still use the scale for trades, but I haven't yet figured out the new postal rate scales and thus the "ease" of knowing how much postage goes with how much weight is beyond me right now. PayPal shipping used to be a really good deal, although, based on my recent trip to the P.O. for some mailings, it seems the P.O. is charging less for the same envelope than I was being charged with PayPal -- on average about $0.50 difference. Like I said, I haven't figured that completely out yet.

 

For the reseller option, I feel that I have much more flexibility with making trades and offering only one variety of my coin for sales. Other varieties can be purchased from C&P, so I don't feel pressured to accept all trade offers for one of the regular edition coins. I also think that using the reseller is a great idea to reduce my up front cash investment, but it does rely on having a design that the coin reseller believes will sell well. Having had my first personal coin sell well (with my own money on the table) made a good case for my 2nd version selling well, too.

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Update...

 

I have decided on a mint and have received a first draft of mint artwork.

 

Couple of questions...

1. On the coin front, do you like the eye done in black enamel, or change it to raised shiny metal?

2. Do you like the back of the coin filled in with white? I had originally thought of having the back be shiny metal with recessed lettering...

3. Any other comments/suggestions/things to keep or change...

 

Thanks!

 

6N-01008A01-1.jpg

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Are these soft enamels or hard enamels? If they are hard I think the eyes should be black, if they are soft enamels then they should be raised metal.

 

For the record I think this whole coin/coloring would look great in hard enamels.

Edited by Damenace
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The enamels for the regular versions are soft enamels, but I think I am going to make a LE version with a translucent enamel. (I dont know if those are hard or soft enamel)

 

But enamel type is something that is easy to change.

Edited by tadpole379
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1. I like the black eye. :lol::blink:

2. Recessed metal would be my preference.

3. Narrow the raised metal on the edge of the coin, does not need to be that thick. I might also look at 1.75 wide and see if the pricing is worth it.

 

4. As with any comments you will get some that tink the opposite of me. You should get what you think is good. On the back you could get a sample with the white and without and make up your mind after you see the actual coin.

 

Interested in a trade or at least add me to your list. Thanks

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I might also look at 1.75 wide and see if the pricing is worth it.

 

 

Thanks for pointing that out. The quote I asked for was for a 1.75 inch coin. I didn't notice the picture said 1.5.

No problem, saved you alot of headach there! If you need my address to repay me just PM me. :blink:

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It has been awhile since I started this thread...so I wanted to give a bit of an update and a reminder not to forget about my coin...because it is on its way. I am working with Oakcoins on this project, I have approved the final artwork (only some minor changes from the art I posted before), and I am currently (impatiently) waiting for my samples to arrive. I had hoped they would be here before the 4th of July and my mini-vacation, but no suck luck. Hopefully next week I will be able to post pictures, decide what finishes will be minted, and I will begin taking reservations. There will be no paid preorders for this coin, but I will keep a reservation list, and those people will be invoiced first once I have the coins in hand.

Edited by tadpole379
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