lost tb`s and coins

[+CANTOR CLAN]

Please can some one explain to me why as soon as one of my tb`s or coins goes abroad it goes misssing ,i know some boxes get muggled i have had that happen to me in the past and probaly in the future too but all my tb`s and coins that go abroad are now missing are they going over the Bermuda triangle are they Disappearing into the twlight zone i think in future i will say "STAY IN THIS COUNTRY" is it just me being unlucky or do others out there get the same

[+Lydford Locators]

We've not noticed the problem with TBs, but agree as far as geocoins go. Obviously they do sometimes go AWOL in the UK too, but their life certainly appears shortened by going oversees.

 

We've resorted to giving the majority of our coins goals asking them to remain in the UK.

[+HazelS]

I think it could be partly due to the differences in caches abroad...

 

My parents were caching in Portugal last week, and one cache was hidden in an old Lemonade bottle, in amongst a pile of other strewn about garbage.... all it takes is for one person to come along and clean up, and the cache is gone.

 

On saying that - they also said that they did some very excellent, sneaky nano hides in Porto itself......

[+Pharisee]

Please can some one explain to me why as soon as one of my tb`s or coins goes abroad it goes misssing ,i know some boxes get muggled i have had that happen to me in the past and probaly in the future too but all my tb`s and coins that go abroad are now missing are they going over the Bermuda triangle are they Disappearing into the twlight zone i think in future i will say "STAY IN THIS COUNTRY" is it just me being unlucky or do others out there get the same

Just checked the stats on my travellers and I'm not sure that I would agree with you

 

Since I started geocaching in September 2002, I've released 29 assorted travel bugs and geocoins. Between them, they've covered 130,932 miles. 7 of them currently reside in the UK Travel Bug Graveyard... 3 lost in England, 1 in Scotland, 2 in America and 1 in France. Another was recently taken from an English cache and not logged out. That's currently in an 'Unkown Location'. Two more were logged out of caches in America back in November 2007 and despite two polite emails to the cachers holding them, they have not been moved on.

 

Of the 19 that are still active, 8 are in England, 3 are in America (Washington, Florida & California), 3 are in Germany and there are 1 each in Finland, Croatia, Belgium, Netherlands & Spain. The highest individual mileage is 16,315 and the lowest was 0. That was stolen from it's first cache in Scotland . Generally speaking, I think I've been quite lucky

[+SidAndBob]

I had a TB go missing as soon as it hit the Czech Republic. Looks like it was picked up by a newbie who lost interest. The problem is that he doesn't speak English. I've also contacted the cache owner asking for some assistance as a translator. Guess what. He doesn't speak English either.

Another of our geocoins is also in the Czech republic despite it's mission clearly stating it wants to stay in the UK.

[+The Blorenges]

After reading a related thread over on the Geocoins Forum yesterday I, too, had a look at my trackables statistics:

 

I have put 56 geocoins and 16 TBs out in the wild travelling.

 

Of these, 9 geocoins have gone M.I.A. (about 17% of the coins) - but of these 9, I believe that only 4 were deliberately stolen. Another 4 disappeared after caches were muggled. The other one was picked up by a new cacher who only ever did 7 caches, then stopped and never responded to any polite emails about the coin.

 

Only 2 of the TBs have gone, 1 of them has been resurrected with an identical item on the Copy tag.

 

Considering the pleasure I get from watching their travels and the interesting logs that I get from all over the World, I can accept those statistics.

 

From reading threads on the other Forums, my impression is that a greater percentage of geocoins disappear (and disappear more quickly) across The Pond but I may be wrong. One of mine disappeared over there, 2 others across the Channel.

 

MrsB

[+Jan and the Percey Boys]

I think that coins sometimes are mistaken as swag as swag in the US. I try to add tags to them to stop this - mant drill coins, add names on the edges etc.

 

This isn't such a problem here as there are not many swag coins in circulation. I know if I put out my non trackable as a gift into a cache I get e mails asking what it is

 

Bob

[+Bear and Ragged]

1. Tag it

2. State "Not to leave the UK" on the tag and TB/coin page.

[+MBFace]

1. Tag it

2. State "Not to leave the UK" on the tag and TB/coin page.

 

If only .....

 

Our wording was not so definite i.e. "To travel around the UK" but we were still annoyed when someone took it to the USA and even more so when a visiting Brit (who kindly repatriated it) confirmed that its tag had gone AWOL.

 

MBF

[+Gushoneybun]

This has just prompted me to check up on our daughter's coin which made it to New York State; it sat in the cache over winter and seems to have been stolen. I have been telling her the snow is very deep over there, but tomorrow will let her know

 

 

Will either drill coins in the future on not let them out on their own!

[+Donmoore]

i don't think it matters what you do with them these things will sadly still happen. if it is coin and you drill i guess you reduce its collectability value which could be a good thing.

[+Scotsbob]

I had a TB go missing as soon as it hit the Czech Republic. Looks like it was picked up by a newbie who lost interest. The problem is that he doesn't speak English. I've also contacted the cache owner asking for some assistance as a translator. Guess what. He doesn't speak English either.

Another of our geocoins is also in the Czech republic despite it's mission clearly stating it wants to stay in the UK.

 

Try this it might help

 

http://uk.babelfish.yahoo.com/

[+lodgebarn]

Well, I have TB's and coins I have released around Britain and Europe. Germany and Austria seem good places to get to, we keep getting moved to interesting Mountain locations. We have also have one in Norway and one in Finland. I have also taken other peoples to Slovakia and they have had a great time. I find most people also try to log in English when they find them. Maybe we have been lucky and they will go in the end but we have certainly had fun tracking them. The only one we have definitely lost so far was in Scotland. As far as I am concerned Europe has been great and gets my recommendation for TBs and Coins.

[+Flymgibet]

Please can some one explain to me why as soon as one of my tb`s or coins goes abroad it goes misssing ,i know some boxes get muggled i have had that happen to me in the past and probaly in the future too but all my tb`s and coins that go abroad are now missing are they going over the Bermuda triangle are they Disappearing into the twlight zone i think in future i will say "STAY IN THIS COUNTRY" is it just me being unlucky or do others out there get the same

Who's got our "Billy no Mates" TB E9Z06K"? and "Al's Best of British" Geocoin CPTFX3. Both last seen in the UK and not logged out of their last caches but checked and not there. I think the problem is universal, we have coins abroad that seem ok.

It's the same old story, if you have something somebody wants bad enough, they will take it.

[delta123]

My dutch personal coin was lost in the UK cache Worfe A Lot More . Its mission was to ravel from Holland to my UK-cache in Devon. Its a shame but You see, also the reverse happens. Coins from abroad get lost here in the UK.

 

When i visit the mega-event i will let loose some more.

[+vw_k]

My first TB got taken to the USA and was put into a newly placed cache but not logged in there. The cache was on an island in Florida known to the locals as a place where kids go to party, guess what, the cache got muggled before any cachers found it!

[+allieballie]

From my limited experience I would absolutely agree with you. My son owned two coins and one TB and all of them disappeared almost as soon as they went abroad. The first coin we actually released in Spain and I think it visited only one or two caches before it went AWOL. The second coin I released in Scotland but it's mission was to go to Germany and roolku happened to pick it up from that initial cache and took it to straight to Germany for us - unfortunately it went missing almost immediately from the cache he put it in over there. The TB was perhaps a different matter - it had visited three or so caches in the UK before being taken to Turkey and last I heard the cache it had been placed in was found burnt beyond recognition. People talk about enjoying seeing where their trackables have visited - well that's pants in my sons case as he has been lucky to have a trackable last more than about four cache moves!

 

Just to add also - when I went to Spain a couple of years ago I mistakenly dropped off someone elses geocoin there which actually wanted to stay in the Uk. I wrote a note about it on the gecoin log and put it on my watch list to keep an eye on it, but, as far as I know, that only lasted in Spain for a short while too before it went missing.

 

All of this has made me really cynical about releasing trackables anywhere. I have been lucky enough to have been given some geocoins as gifts by several people and I have no intention of ever releasing them as I don't want them to go missing.

[+Cushie Butterfield]

Our stolen/missing coins went missing in Kent, they are all drilled and had keyring tags on them. I wouldn't mind if they had got a bit further than the county. We're not releasing any more down here until things settle down or something can be done about the culprit(s).

At first we were upset but it's only a £5 loss each time, it would cost us more in petrol to go and collect them back!

[+Gareth23]

Can anyone explain, why would somebody log a geocoin in and out of a cache in one visit? See TB281BJ at GCW99J Going Underground (not anymore) #2.

 

I've been contacted by a cacher that retrieved it from GCW99Y Going Underground (not anymore) #4 but says he can't log it as the previous cacher has logged it as picking it up. Everything seems in order.

 

I don't really know what to do in order to sort it out.

 

All replies gratefully received.

[+The Blorenges]

Can anyone explain, why would somebody log a geocoin in and out of a cache in one visit? See TB281BJ at GCW99J Going Underground (not anymore) #2.

 

I've been contacted by a cacher that retrieved it from GCW99Y Going Underground (not anymore) #4 but says he can't log it as the previous cacher has logged it as picking it up. Everything seems in order.

 

I don't really know what to do in order to sort it out.

 

All replies gratefully received.

 

Hi Gareth23 - Welcome to the Forum

 

This is quite a common practice, often referred to as "dipping" the TB/coin. If a geocacher picks up a coin and then spends the day doing several caches they will "dip" the coin in and out of the route to show its journey with them and give it the "mileage" for the day.

Looking at your coin's page, it is now placed in Going Underground #4, so the second cacher you mention should now be able to retrieve it from that cache into his own hands.

 

MrsB

[+Gareth23]

Thankyou and thanks

 

Everything seems to have magically resolved itself so no harm done.

[+welsh mountain paynies]

Please can some one explain to me why as soon as one of my tb`s or coins goes abroad it goes misssing ,i know some boxes get muggled i have had that happen to me in the past and probaly in the future too but all my tb`s and coins that go abroad are now missing are they going over the Bermuda triangle are they Disappearing into the twlight zone i think in future i will say "STAY IN THIS COUNTRY" is it just me being unlucky or do others out there get the same

Of our 8 trackables, one went to USA and died, one did not survive a newby visiting the original cache that it was placed in, four have gone missing and 2 are still moving around. The four which have gone missing can all be tracked back to people who have only visited a few caches. I dont think newbies know what to do with trackables that is why it is so important to attach instructions to them.

We are reluctant to send any more out to their doom.

Edited July 27, 2008 by welsh mountain paynies

[+rutson]

This is a Geocoin query and as such should be in the Geocoin forum

[+PopUpPirate]

Please can some one explain to me why as soon as one of my tb`s or coins goes abroad it goes misssing ,i know some boxes get muggled i have had that happen to me in the past and probaly in the future too but all my tb`s and coins that go abroad are now missing are they going over the Bermuda triangle are they Disappearing into the twlight zone i think in future i will say "STAY IN THIS COUNTRY" is it just me being unlucky or do others out there get the same

 

I had a Lancs coin that had instructions that it was to merely knock around Lancs and Yorks (to wind up the White Roses, lol!!)

 

It ended up in Aus, and the *&^%$*" won't reply to emails and I can only assume he's pocketed it. The risk of releasing stuff I suppose! Can't let the boogas get you down though

[+careygang]

There are just too many factors in this worldwide...

Regarding TBs, the more attractive the actual traveler, the more likely it is to go walkies. LIke the child that takes a liking to the toy they just found.

Plus there is the risk of separation. Earlier this year I came across a TB that was just the Dogtag, the actual traveler had gone. Another one I found was the 'toy' with one of those 'companion tags' which try to explain the purpose for all those that can't read the actual tracking tag, the actual TB tag was missing.

 

As to coins, the prettier it is the more likely to disappear. My first coin went within a couple of moves, stolen by a 'collector'.

I was discussing the 'coin collectors' with my son recently. We dreamed up a scenario whereby some lonely individual collector dies and the relatives find this hoard of coins. Thinking they can make a quick 'buck' out of the estate, they try to sell, only to discover they are all registered and missing over several years...... Thus they all suddenly come back into circulation...

 

If only.

[+Deepdiggingmole]

I had one TB go missing 3 years ago in the UK - what was annoying I managed to establish who the cacher was who took the TB, he had signed the physical log for the cache but not so online - when the cache was checked we discovered who it was who signed the log. Thus an email went out to that individual - i eventually got a reply - but the Tb never did get back into circulation - the cacher is still active albeit not very frequently and i did notice he travelled some distance to 'pick up' one of his own TB's to stop it travelling any further - and presumably to prevent it being snatched !!!

 

On the other hand I have got a TB that had a target to reach in New Zealand - and after 2 1/2 years it did reach it's destination - so some have good stories too.