Please help my kidnapped geocoin!

[+willox96]

I placed an Independence geocoin last year. This was my first coin and it has a special meaning to me. A group of geocachers retreived it in November 2007 and haven't dropped it. I have emailed them several times and have had no response. The cachers have had other discovered caches, but not left my coin in them. I REALLY want it moving again. What should I do?

[+larry739]

chill

[+coreynjoey]

There's not much you can do except to keep trying to email them. It's a fairly new cacher with only 16 finds, and only 1 find in the last 8 months.

[+Koolbrez]

chill

Definately, I recieved one of larry739 coins in a cache week ago. It was marked as a unactivated coin. But it was not. So I will get it on the move again. I never had a coin to call my own and it was a let down knowing it was activated, but knowing i could get a coin moving again that lay dormant for nearly a year was more satisfaction than that. I have recently won a GSA V2 and now have a coin of my own. Maybe it was Karma on my side. But I will not let this coin go since it means so much to me. Keep trying to contact them and I hope they will set your coin free.

[+ThePetersTrio]

One time early in my caching days, I tried to tug at a coin-hostage holder's heartstring to get my coin moving by saying my daughter was really upset that the coin wasn't being released (she was miffed but not upset)....it worked, but then karma got me and the coin was stolen from the very next cache.

 

I never tried that again.

 

Mostly you just have to be willing to let them go and be happy when/if they get moved. FWIW, the more you have out there, the less it seems to hurt when one gets stalled for some reason.

[+Koolbrez]

One time early in my caching days, I tried to tug at a coin-hostage holder's heartstring to get my coin moving by saying my daughter was really upset that the coin wasn't being released (she was miffed but not upset)....it worked, but then karma got me and the coin was stolen from the very next cache.

 

I never tried that again.

 

Mostly you just have to be willing to let them go and be happy when/if they get moved. FWIW, the more you have out there, the less it seems to hurt when one gets stalled for some reason.

 

Karma has it's ways.

[+Droo]

I have to agree with CoreynJoey. The cacher is a student with only 16 cache finds (granted that's 6 more than you) so geocaching may not be as high a priority as it may be for you. Of the 4 travelers they've picked up they're still holding on to 3 of them. It may be a while before they go caching again and it's possible they'll remember to drop off the coins and travel bug so in the meantime all you can do is grin and bear it.

If you do email them to remind them of your coin's mission I suggest you do so gently and kindly.

[+fairyhoney]

Please, when you e-mail them, be gentle. I'd hate to see a young cacher get disillusioned by unintentional rudeness. Maybe kindly remind them how to move the coin along ?

[+slowdownracer]

"Geocaching is a game of giving stuff away and keeping your fingers crossed."

 

Hey now wait, I said that. (see my signature line below)

 

That's about all you can say about releasing geocoins into the wild. Consider it "being given away".

 

If it keeps moving, consider that "finger crossing" may actually work.

 

Otherwise, you're at the mercy of those who don't play the game well.

 

I haven't seen one of my released coins logged in months. They might all be gone now. But I'll continue to take my other activated coins to events to be discovered.

 

I'd love to send out paper proxies instead of real coins, but it's still frowned-upon by too many people. But it is an option.

 

Oh well, that's my two cents worth.

 

Edited July 12, 2008 by slowdownracer

[Maine Family]

I wrote to a cacher overseas who picked one of ours up last year and didn't get a reply until this week. They thought they had dropped it in a cache when they picked it up and the email they use for caching isn't there main email and they don't check it. But they discovered it this week when they went to go geocaching in their caching bag.

[+fairyhoney]

I wrote to a cacher overseas who picked one of ours up last year and didn't get a reply until this week. They thought they had dropped it in a cache when they picked it up and the email they use for caching isn't there main email and they don't check it. But they discovered it this week when they went to go geocaching in their caching bag.

 

GREAT story of Faith

[+willox96]

Thanks for all you help! I will continue to try to contact them (I can't be rude or mean, it's not in my nature).

I have 2 other coins that I am hoping to release soon, but I wanted to "try the waters" with my independence day coin. I would like to buy a few more from the internet and evetually have my own geocoin created!

Meanwhile, I will continue with my goal of 109 caches by 2009 and keep my fingers crossed. KEEP ON CACHIN'!

[+Butterfly_lady]

I usually send a message via their profile, thanking them for retrieving my coin, and as it is well past the 2 week recommended period for holding onto a coin, I look forward with anticipation to seeing where they place it next.

 

I get at least a 50% rate of "I'm guilty" emails back. Which I consider well worth while.... I go through my out in the wild coins approx three or four times a year with this sort of prodding.