What is the difference between a travel bug and a geocoin?

[+Hellolost]

Aren't they the same thing but with a different look? One is a tag attached to something and one is just the coin.

 

I got myself all confused as I was reading so I figure I would just ask the experts lol

 

THANKS

[Neos2]

Well, yes, sort of...They are both meant to travel and be trackable, which I think is what you are asking.

 

The coins are trackable in themselves --the tracking number is printed on the coin usually--and the tagged trackables (TBs) usually are attached to some sort of trinket (stuffed animal, plastic figurine, key chain, photo frame with picture in it, etc). Some coins are not originally made as trackables and will be drilled or put into a case and have a TB tag attached to them.

 

Coins tend to go missing more quickly than tagged trackables--but the TBs also turn up missing. Because people collect the coins as well as use them for trackables, new cachers may be more easily confused about whether they are in the cache to collect or to move along.

[4wheelin_fool]

Aren't they the same thing but with a different look? One is a tag attached to something and one is just the coin.

 

I got myself all confused as I was reading so I figure I would just ask the experts lol

 

THANKS

 

a geocoin is a custom-made travel bug tag with nothing attached to it.

[Neos2]

Aren't they the same thing but with a different look? One is a tag attached to something and one is just the coin.

 

I got myself all confused as I was reading so I figure I would just ask the experts lol

 

THANKS

 

a geocoin is a custom-made travel bug tag with nothing attached to it.

 

A geocoin can have a TB tag attached to it. I've found plenty of coins that weren't originally made as trackable items (although they may have been numbered) with TB tags attached to them so they could be tracked.

[+Hellolost]

There was a woman on this site that had a clickable link under her name. There must have been at least 20 or 30 of the coins she had up for trade. If it is a trackable item why would she (or anyone) keep them for trade?

[Neos2]

There was a woman on this site that had a clickable link under her name. There must have been at least 20 or 30 of the coins she had up for trade. If it is a trackable item why would she (or anyone) keep them for trade?

You can do either with coins--send them out as trackables that are put into caches and hopefully moved from one cache to the next, or just buy them and colelct them, (or trade them).

 

Two different things:

1) You can put out a coin as a trackable item. If someone else finds it, they are not supposed to keep it. They are supposed to move it along like they would any other trackable item.

 

2) You can buy a coin and keep it (collect it)--or -- You can buy several of the same coin and try to trade them to other people for coins they have bought (trade collector coins)--or--- You can buy one coin and try to trade it to someone else for a coin they have bought or been given (trade collector coins).

 

Swapping collector coins is usually done in person (at events) or by mail. The owners of the coins do the swapping/selling. The woman you mention had either bought the coins or been given the coins to do with as she pleased.

 

You can have your own coin made. It is expensive. Most people try to sell some of them to offset the cost of producing them.

[+Renegade Knight]

A Geocoin is related to caching. Some are trackable some aren't.

 

A non geocoin can have a TB tag attached to it. That makes it into a travel bug but not a geocoin.

 

Some geocoins only relation to caching is the tracking number.

[+TotemLake]

About 2 bucks.