Coin-napping frustration

[+katatonicus]

What is the typical mileage your coins tend to get before getting "coin-napped" (or lost)?

 

I'm a bit bitter that one of the three coins I released was swiped from a cache after a single move of 4miles. I understand things happen, caches get mugged...cachers lose items...etc... Few of them travel for years... but I was hoping to get a bit more than 1 move and 4 miles out of it...Especially with a big piece of paper saying that it's stated goal was to be logged properly. I've run across other caches with coins that haven't moved at all....and were swiped from the first cache the owner placed it in....I've also run across replica coins that people make because they don't want the originals to go missing..

 

What is your average number of logs/miles before your coins go missing? (Thanks for letting me vent)

[+Hula Bum]

Sorry to hear about your loss! We've actually had great luck with our coins moving. Some have been going for a couple of years now and ten thousand plus miles. I think largely it's because we drill them and tag them, thus making them pretty much worthless. Some have disappeared for almost a year, only to pop up again, so hopefully they'll come back to life!

[+LadeBear68]

I had one that didn't have any miles, it disappeared immediately but showed up 8 months later so have hope.

[+Eartha]

Post a note to the cache page. Looks like several new cachers were out to that cache, and maybe they don't realize what they picked up yet. Also post a note with travel bug logging instructions to your TB page, in case they figure it out, but don't know what to do with it. It could also be that either someone forgot to log it, or it got logged into the wrong cache and could still show up as soon as someone finds it. If you go to the Travel Bugs forums and read the Travel Bug Obituary page, you'll see you are not alone. Don't give up though, so many have reappeared from long lost voyages, there is always the hope that it will pop up.

You can also mark it missing, as the owner, and if someone finds it they will log it, but people won't be looking for it in the cache only to be disappointed at not finding it.

[+Crowesfeat30]

I have a coin that I put on the TB table at our local geocaching group's fall picnic. The coin has disappeared and has never been logged out of the event. I am totally bummed to think that someone in my own group took one of my coins but it does seem that that is exactly what happened.

 

However, I also have many other coins out there that have done very well. I try to not place my heart into any of my travelers because I would probably never set any more out. But I really enjoy watching their travels.

CF30

Edited April 22, 2008 by Crowesfeat30

[+DaFunkyFrogs]

I have a coin that I put on the TB table at our local geocaching group's fall picnic. The coin has disappeared and has never been logged out of the event. I am totally bummed to think that someone in my own group took one of my coins but it does seem that that is exactly what happened.

 

However, I also have many other coins out there that have done very well. I try to not place my heart into any of my travelers because I would probably never set any more out. But I really enjoy watching their travels.

CF30

 

That exact thing happened to us 2 months ago. We also have several other coins out there doing very well traveling around. We don't send out expensive or special coins at all.

[+Cushie Butterfield]

We drill ours and put a key ring on each with an explanation and a mission. We set a spy coin away and it was stolen from its first cache, not even a visit logged to the cache.

[+ThePetersTrio]

If you go to the Travel Bugs forums and read the Travel Bug Obituary page, you'll see you are not alone.

 

Can we have a coin obituary page?

 

Misery loves company sometimes.

 

 

 

We've released 5 now and already 1 has gone missing but I'm still hoping it'll turn up. But it's not in the cache and it's been gone for over a month now.

 

But the bright side is that 1 of ours has been to Hawaii, where it spent 1 glorious day at the Honolulu Zoo and it is now on it's way to Florida!

 

(sorry we in the Pacific NW are sorely sun-deprived at this time so I'm living vicariously off this coin)

[+USA 45]

Like eartha said , Maybe new cachers. I had a local new cacher that brought a friend with him as he was doing my caches. Well I check my caches everyday and noticed a coin gone that belonged to someone else. I waited a day or so and then email the young man. He said his friend like it so he took it. (Friend not a cacher) it took us a few weeks but we finally got that coin back and on it's way to another cache. I figured since this cacher only had like 3 caches under his belt that he had not come acrossed a geo coin and didn't understand they were to be moved on. I told him the swag was to keep if he wanted to trade something. Now he is well on his way to being a great cacher and an honest one at that. USA 45

[+Suburban Hillbillies]

My worse coin napping. A coin I looked hard for, and finally found one after alot of searching.

Made a special mission tag, and coin holder for it.

Released it.

Never even traveled before it came up missing.

[+hollora]

Recently made an event coin and an attendee purchased one. Released it in a cache and it went MIA within a few days. The cache & coin owner narrowed it down to who had the coin. A "newbie" who said, "well, what are these coins going for today" and offered to pay him for it. Well, today one sold for over $31 on the Eplace.

 

The coin/cache owner is fairly new too. I suggested - maybe drill it next time and attach a tag. We all know - that may not matter either.

 

But - just never give up. Try to get them out there and follow them along.

[RedShoesGirl]

...

 

But - just never give up. Try to get them out there and follow them along.

 

i just can't get behind that kind of thinking anymore. if i want to give a coin to someone that is my choice, but to put one out traveling knowing it is going to be stolen is just beyond me. i buy the coins now for their beauty and the ingenuity into creating them. i have no intention of releasing any of them.

 

i have had 4 bugs all go missing. a friend knew how much i missed one particular bug and went to all lengths to get that one back for me.

 

i have released at least 8 of the canadian coins - some were meant to travel and some were not. none of them ever traveled a bit. this was before they were being tracked here, they had to be tracked on their own site.

 

one person said in another thread why worry about a $10 item.

 

because it is the principle of the thing. and besides, i can't afford to put a $10 coin out there for someone else to steal and buy one for myself i would like to keep or trade. i may as well pay $20 for a coin!

 

another said she was sure that it must have been muggles that stole stuff out of caches because geocaching people wouldn't do that sort of thing, right?

 

well, maybe not most of the people in forums, but around here, nothing lasts. not travel bugs, not coins.

 

if the majority of people who play the game do the right thing, then answer me this: "why is there so much trash in caches?"

 

if most people trade up, then why are all the caches i find that are more than a couple months old full of junk.

 

who is it that thinks a dirty golf ball is nice swag? or a dirty toy dinosaur they picked up out of the kids' rooms.

 

being a newbie is not an excuse. long term cachers just think it is funny i guess.

 

the majority of cachers are just like the majority of people, not very nice. they are getting the coords from GC. and people that take a nice thing from a cache know it isn't cool to put junk in, and i mean real junk.

 

you just can't let it bother you. i find a dirty cache, i clean it out and leave nice stuff. do i ask that everyone else do that?

 

no. it would be nice, but hey, that is not the way the world works these days.

 

Crowesfeat30 - i am so sorry you had to learn this same lesson the hard way by having some one take one of your coins.

 

i used to be an optimist. now i am a realist.

 

rsg

[+zenpanda]

As of today I have released 7 coins- 4 have gone missing. I have tried contacting cache owners, reading logs to find the coin-napper and even posted notes on the cache pages. It is frustrating to the point I am following several local cachers lead and just taking my coins to events for show.

 

I believe that the majority of cachers are not out to plunder caches.

 

I did learn more from this thread about hope. I also have created a better system for myself to track TBs & coins so i don't feel like I lost one when it turns out I forgot to place it. LOL

 

I do hope to release a few more in a few months when I find the appropriate cache for each.