+cincol Posted June 15, 2008 Share Posted June 15, 2008 (edited) I have just been informed of my 5th "loss" of a traveller in Gauteng over the passed few months. Is this something that others can identify with or is it just MY bad luck? I value and treasure my geocoins [and travel bugs] dearly and each one has a special mission and dedication. What makes this worse is the fact that the coins that have disappeared are the really beautiful coins! The ugly and less attractive coins seem to survive - is this telling me something perhaps? I have had 2 of my own caches muggled recently where coins belonging to others have gone missing and I sympathize with the owners' loss. [1 cache is South Africa and 1 in Qatar.] I contact each owner with a personal e-mail and express my regret and offer commiserations. I follow the travels of my coins and those that are in my caches with great interest. In fact I have a number of coins and TB's travelling the world and I really enjoy reading about their travels and follow their moves in and out of caches with great interest. Because I live where there are few caches to find, I spend a lot of time, effort and money placing caches and setting coins and Travel Bugs free to travel the world. It is sad to say this, but I am now seriously reconsidering the deployment of my coins and bugs in South Africa, but Gauteng in particular. Edited June 15, 2008 by cincol Quote Link to comment
+Fish Eagle Posted June 15, 2008 Share Posted June 15, 2008 I have just been informed of my 5th "loss" of a traveller in Gauteng over the passed few months. Is this something that others can identify with or is it just MY bad luck? Join the club...!! An inescapable fact of putting nice coins into the field is that they are at risk, and will be "muggled". I think your loss ratio is abnormal though, and maybe you've had some bad luck. We have about 300 travellers in the field across the world, and we lose about 2% per month, which we view as acceptable, relative to the pleasure which we get from their travels. Sure, we've lost some coins in Gauteng, but we haven't experienced abnormally high losses there. We also reacted very negatively to our first losses, but have got past that and now accept losses as a fact of life. A coin lost in a muggled cache is bad news, but much worse is a coin picked up by a "10-cache wonder" and it then disappears into a big black hole...... Compare the cost of the coins you've lost (and the pleasure you get from them), with the current fuel price, relative to what that works out to per cache found!! Maybe that sum will take some of the "sharp edge" off your losses...? Oh, I forgot.... the price of fuel isn't a problem in some parts of the world Quote Link to comment
+cincol Posted June 15, 2008 Author Share Posted June 15, 2008 Yeah Fish Eagle - I love your sense of humour!! Fuel price - what's that? I accept that coins are going to disappear, but my ratio is exceptional at the moment AND I would prefer it if they do NOT all disappear in Gauteng though. This just seems to give GP the justified name that it has. Although it might sound as though I am reacting negatively the thread is more to see if I am the only one going through this "bad patch" in Gauteng at the moment. Hopefully it is only me. If not, then we have a problem of coins [and caches] being muggled at an alarming rate. Incidently, on TWO occasions my coins have disappeared from what one could call caches that could have been considered as safe as Fort Knox. The one inside a coffee shop under constant supervision and the other one with 24/7 CCTV surveillance. In neither cases was anything "seen". Makes me wonder. Quote Link to comment
+GlobalRat Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 Were these caches plundered or have the coins just gone missing? Trackables, especially coins, go missing all over the world. Noobs are especially prone to picking them up and not realising what they are. Must say I'm somewhat surprised. Have heard of a few coins going missing locally but these have all been due to caches being destroyed by fire etc. Quote Link to comment
+tomtwogates Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 Know your frustration - lost a new coin to a cacher with two caches to his name - logged it in the cache logbook that he had taken it, but nothing on the coin page - now no answer to e-mails - had a TB taken over a year ago in the US of A and about six months ago a mail saying sorry but nothing since! and those are outside of the muggled caches Quote Link to comment
+Cape_Guy Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 (edited) tomtwogates ... Went to your TB page ... You sure are unlucky with your trackables: Klompie - Last Log - 5/19/2007 - in the hands of - harrisale Penguin Peter - Last Log - 3/18/2008 - in the hands of - kai05 Two Ocean Snoopy - Last Log - 11/7/2007 - in the hands of - Unknown That is 3 lost out of 4!! The same applies to your coins ... Seems like you lost 2 out of 4. A total of 5 trackables out of 8 ... very high lost ratio!! Edited June 16, 2008 by Cape_Guy Quote Link to comment
+geocacher_coza Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 My loss is 6 out of 8! Quote Link to comment
+cincol Posted June 17, 2008 Author Share Posted June 17, 2008 (edited) geocacher_coza and tomtwogates - really bad stats guys. That would be sufficient motivation for me never to allow a traveller out of miy sight again! What can one say though? OK - so I shouldn't feel so bad about the situation now. My ratio is 5 out of about 45 that are in circulation. However, those are Gauteng based travellers! I have lost 1 in the Middle East. 2 were "lost" in Europe but have subsequently been logged again by cachers. Often cachers also just forget to log them into or out of a ccahe. Just yesterday a TB of mine was :found" and then grabbed out of a cache in the Free State. It was logged out of a Johannesburg cache but never into the Free State one. Another phenomenum is cachers who will log a traveller into their possession and then just leave it in their swagbag indefinitely. I have 1 TB in particular the was retrieved on 5 January 2008 [in Gauteng no less, and by a Gautenger! ] and despite e-mails to the person - without reply - still ignores me. This is even more frustrating than losing it. At least when it is lost you know where it is - GONE! Sounds as though I have it in for all the GP's, doesn't it! Edited June 17, 2008 by cincol Quote Link to comment
+GlobalRat Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Well, never give up hope, one of my Travel Bugs disappeared for 2.5 years, before magically reappearing in an unapproved listing. Quote Link to comment
+cincol Posted June 17, 2008 Author Share Posted June 17, 2008 GR - really interesting reading about the travels of your TB. Thanks for sharing it with us. Quote Link to comment
+DamhuisClan Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 I will only place a TB / coin in a cache, when I am relatively confident / sure that it is not a mugable cache. This does mean some TB's stay with me for quite some time, and I usualy log them in and out of all the caches we visit. And can get somewhat combersome at times, but at least the owner sees them traveling. So far of the 5 or so out there all have survived. Quote Link to comment
+DamhuisClan Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 I will only place a TB / coin in a cache, when I am relatively confident / sure that it is not a mugable cache. This does mean some TB's stay with me for quite some time, and I usualy log them in and out of all the caches we visit. And can get somewhat combersome at times, but at least the owner sees them traveling. So far of the 5 or so out there all have survived. Quote Link to comment
+cincol Posted June 19, 2008 Author Share Posted June 19, 2008 I will only place a TB / coin in a cache, when I am relatively confident / sure that it is not a mugable cache. DamhiusClan - a great idea indeed, BUT what about OTHER cachers? You cannot control how THEY place coins and that is where the problem lies. I will also not place a TB/coin in a cache that I would not like one of my coins to be in. Hopefully that way I ensure that other cacher's coins get into relatively "safe" caches. But at the end of the day when it is lying out there in a tupperware container we have relatively no control over it. Long live our TB's/coins that are travelling the world. Quote Link to comment
+dakardrix Posted July 2, 2008 Share Posted July 2, 2008 (edited) Post deleted Edited July 2, 2008 by dakardrix Quote Link to comment
+Team Ginger Posted July 3, 2008 Share Posted July 3, 2008 (edited) I've only lost one of my coins. The coin was placed in a cache that was still up for publishing, and muggled before a FTF. Maybe this is not such a good idea? I've done it myself, but in hind sight - maybe the cache must stand 'the test of time' first? Then again, some caches last 2 years and then get muggled - no guarantees, I suppose. I am planning on making a paper photo lamination of my lost coin and send that out - since it has a trackable number. I'm sure it won't be as popular as the real thing, but hopefully it can travel in memory of the lost one. My first owned trackable started its travels in a cache I placed - the first pickup was not logged and I kept receiving logs of finders who mention that the TB is not in the cache. I spent lots of hours trying to trace logs to find my TB. Months later I managed to get confirmation of where the TB is by cachers discovering it in another cache. Luckily it was just moved and not lost. So it is now happily visiting Cape Town! I have a coin in the USA. Its an absolute thrill to read the logs! I will be very sad if it gets lost. I sympathise with you Cincol! You seem to have had worst luck. Edited July 3, 2008 by Team Ginger Quote Link to comment
+geocacher_coza Posted July 3, 2008 Share Posted July 3, 2008 (edited) I am planning on making a paper photo lamination of my lost coin and send that out - since it has a trackable number Good idea! WIll do that myself. I have lost a few TB's! What about just stamping the number on a blank dogtag? I have a lot of blank dogtags that I can use. Maybe better than a laminated sheet and will last longer Something like this Edited July 3, 2008 by geocacher_coza Quote Link to comment
+Team Ginger Posted July 3, 2008 Share Posted July 3, 2008 What about just stamping the number on a blank dogtag? I have a lot of blank dogtags that I can use. Good idea! Except that I don't have blank dog tags. The photo of my coin has the tracking number very clearly readable - but I have been wondering about the durability of just the laminated sheet myself... Maybe I should make a clay coin-like shape thingy and stick the photos onto it? It can then be the lightweight version... Can one get re-issues of TB dog-tags (with existing tracking numbers) - for resending new TB's into the world with the tracking number of a lost one? What happens to lost trackables? Do they simply remain listed as lost and that's it? Quote Link to comment
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