I'd love to see...

[+mousekakat]

I'd really love to see a museum of coins set up somewhere, I guess at Groundspeak and maybe another one set up somewhere overseas?

 

Something with as close to every coin minted as possible on display, trackable or not. Maybe coin designers/minters could do 2 extra coins of every coin and finish, minus the tracking number on them and donate them to the museum so that those who appreciate them could go and see them all, including the rare ones, and of course, each coin would have a little placard explaining the coin, the designer, and their reasoning behind it?

 

Am I totally out in left field here? I know that there are the wiki's on coins out there, but I just thought it would be kind of neat to have someplace to go check them out in person if someone wanted to. Coins are small and don't take up THAT much space (yeah, I know, I've got them all over my house, too ) so it wouldn't have to be a huge building...

 

Anyone else think it would be neat to have? Maybe we should drop a bug (no, not a travel one) into someone at Groundspeak's ear about this? It would require work to get copies of all coins that have been made into it, but maybe that could be a work in progress and we could all contribute to it when it starts to get the current ones into it?

 

Naomi

[+Chur]

there is a TB museum in Hannover, Germany:

The Hitchhiker’s ride to Legacy – TB Museum

GCPX30

I haven't been there (yet) but the descriptions sound nice :-)

is that the kind of thing you mean?

[+ElliPirelli]

there is a TB museum in Hannover, Germany:

The Hitchhiker’s ride to Legacy – TB Museum

GCPX30

I haven't been there (yet) but the descriptions sound nice :-)

is that the kind of thing you mean?

Yeah, the moment I started reading mousekakats post, I thought of Hannover.

 

Wasn't there yet, either, even if it is just a few Kilometers to go...

But maybe I'll find some time in February...

 

The description is very nice! And when do you have the oportunity to log a visit at a museum...

[+Tschakko]

2nd that

 

Although I think I saw more different kinds of coins at an inofficial event near Seattle tis year

Edited December 6, 2008 by Tschakko

[Highland Geofairy]

I wrote to Groundspeak having made the assumption that they probably had a 'collection' of coins, I offered to add mine if they could tell me where to post it - they weren't interested, maybe I should have offered them a trackable

[+Tschakko]

I wrote to Groundspeak having made the assumption that they probably had a 'collection' of coins, I offered to add mine if they could tell me where to post it - they weren't interested, maybe I should have offered them a trackable

 

They probably do not have a collection, when I was at the headquarters, there was just the cachecontainer, but no coincollection... I guess it is just something they make money with and no one ever thought of making a museum of it...

 

I think it is never too late to start a good idea

[+ElliPirelli]

I wrote to Groundspeak having made the assumption that they probably had a 'collection' of coins, I offered to add mine if they could tell me where to post it - they weren't interested, maybe I should have offered them a trackable

How rude, to get a mystery coin offered and reject it! I'm sorry Highland Geofairy, to hear that they didn't appreciate a very nice coin!

[+Smort78]

I'll do it!

Everyone just send me your coins

[+larry739]

Something like this could be done.

 

It would require a good starter collection, a publicly accessible place to exhibit them, and a curator who has the time and interest to really do a good job on it. I have a pretty good starter collection, but no place and no time right now. Maybe in a few years when I retire...

 

Seems like many of the old timers who really have the larger collections have some real cash tied up in them and probably do not want to just give them away. If this were a bona fide 501c3 corporation with a board of directors and good oversight and accounting it could actually be set up as a tax deduction when people contribute their geocoins. That way they could get a tax writeoff against their income tax. If the coin being donated has truly appreciated then the write off might approach their initial investiment. I suppose ebay or some other documentable market value would have to be used to value the contributions. Along with the "Donated by..." Or "In this display cabinet is the XYZ collection..." it might provide people with the needed financial and emotional return to make it easy for them to donate their geocoins.

 

We are seeing people sell their collections by the piece or lot right now to get some money back. I think it has to be painful to do that. A really well run nonprofit could actually broker coins and use the proceeds to buy collections. Actually my personal involvement with geocoins is sort of like that but instead of building a nonprofit museum I am releasing geocoins into the wild with the goal of breaking even or losing money at the end of each year so I do not have to claim any hobby income on my income taxes. I do this by buying 5 selling three, releasing one, and keeping one in a big grenade can.

 

To work right this would need to be a true 501c3 NP with a bonafide Board who makes all the decisions. It could work though and now is the time to really get started with it before the number of geocoins gets beyond the ability of the organization to accumulate or catalog.

 

So who has the time and the place?

Edited December 6, 2008 by larry739

[+Lemon Fresh Dog]

Not to be a monkey wrench, but having worked in museums myself, I have a slightly different perspective on this.

 

As an example. One museum I worked in had a very large collection of shells from around the world. The shells were amazing and some were certainly rare. However, the collection was donated with the caveat that they are constantly on display. This is a problem.

 

Most museums are founded to show the history of a people, a place, or even a company (corporate museums). They often have way more items than display space. They also want to get visitors - so they rotate displays.

 

In the shell case - the collection had nothing to do with the area and the space was too "precious" to continue displaying something that didn't make historical sense for the area or attract many visitors. The collection was returned to the family.

 

How does this all affect geocoins?

 

There is great enthusiasm around geocoins, but this is distributed across the world. If I opened a geocoin museum in Calgary, Alberta - how many of you would honestly visit? Any geocoin display would have to be part of a larger museum with greater appeal beyond geocoins.

 

A museum of Geocaching? That's still pretty specialized. I've never been to Groundspeak HQ, but if they had the space - and really wanted visitors (which probably doesn't make much sense), then that might be a possibility. A small museum with a gift shop might work. Many companies do have this at their headquarters (I've seen the Microsoft museum and the Canadian Pacific museum, but these have far greater visitation numbers than Groundspeak - I suspect).

 

I guess it would be nice, but a better solution might be for the coin manufacturers to form a group or image databank and share that digitally. There are many grass-roots efforts to do this, but having a professional archivist contracted to manage this collection would give it greater value and probably a better "product"

 

Funding.

Everything costs. So if the databank was to work it has to become something that is not a volunteer effort. Even community museums have some permanent staff. The databank could solicit "friends of the geocoin databank" memberships, create a special geocoin for profit and use the money, and ask the manufacturers to solicit those making coins to contribute "May we donate one of your coins to the databank?", "Would you like to contribute $20/$50 of the minting costs to the databank, we'll match X amount"

 

Good luck!

 

It would be cool however it shakes down.

Edited December 6, 2008 by Lemon Fresh Dog

[+LadeBear68]

Wasn't there an album called Icon Ho where people put coins in the album and it was supposed to travel?

[+Eric K]

It would seem a logical place would be at Groundspeaks HQ. Maybe if someone in that area offered to work with them to maintain the display they would be interested.

[RedShoesGirl]

didn't someone post recently they had found one of the original v1 moun10bike and donated it to Groundspeak's mini-museum?

 

i am pretty sure i read that here.

 

rsg

[+Mauison]

there is a TB museum in Hannover, Germany:

The Hitchhiker’s ride to Legacy – TB Museum

GCPX30

I haven't been there (yet) but the descriptions sound nice :-)

is that the kind of thing you mean?

 

One of my original v1 geocoins is in there, on the bottom left display. I think I donated it back in 2005, when TravelingViking was setting the cache/display up.

 

[+Lemon Fresh Dog]

Years ago - I made the mistake of mailing the original geobone in regular envelopes - about 6-10 of them didn't make it and were lost on the floor of the post office sorting machines floor.

 

One of these actually was sent to GroupdSpeak by the Postal Service! GeoundSpeak contacted me and asked to keep the coin and I, of course, said yes. However, that was a long time ago - could you imagine how big the display case would have to be for todays number of coins! Yipes!

 

<snip> - wrong display.

 

Does anyone have a photo of the display case at Groundspeak? I've never been there, but heard they had one.

Edited December 6, 2008 by Lemon Fresh Dog

[+Landsharkz]

We're moving 'studio and shop' to a new location on the top floor of our 800 sq' addition. We will have room for something like this, but other than being incredibly cache-dense and the most favourable climate in Canada ... would people want to come to Victoria to visit a Geocoin Museum? Actually, wouldn't it be more like an art gallery than museum? After all, each run of coins is a Limited Edition piece of art... in metal. Where are all the grand masters pieces housed? In a museum or an art gallery?

[haysonics]

The Microsoft museum would be ideal as they are more than likely to have the funds going into the future to grow a collection. With your support they could seek to set a realistic value on individual coins rather than the lottery which is ebay. This would help those needing to sell their collections in the future get both a fair price and the knowledge that they could sell their coins to a museum so as to be available for everyone to see.

 

The main question you may need to ask yourselves is whether you want to see a real explosion of interest in geocoins that could occur with the publicity of a new collection. Will this be good for the sport of geocaching ? I don't know the answer to that.

 

Also, you might need to redifine your thinking on numbers. With the new popularity, a LE geocoin run of say 75 coins may become a LE run of 750. With a tenfold increase in interest to match, the ratio of interest to available coins should remain the same meaning the value of an LE should remain the same. I say "should" as it is hard to predict. In the art world a limited run often numbers into the thousands but the market forces seem to work in the same way as it currently does with geocoins.

Edited December 7, 2008 by haysonics

[+Jackalgirl]

We're moving 'studio and shop' to a new location on the top floor of our 800 sq' addition. We will have room for something like this, but other than being incredibly cache-dense and the most favourable climate in Canada ... would people want to come to Victoria to visit a Geocoin Museum? Actually, wouldn't it be more like an art gallery than museum? After all, each run of coins is a Limited Edition piece of art... in metal. Where are all the grand masters pieces housed? In a museum or an art gallery?

 

I think that the utility of this idea is not so much the physical space (although that is important) as it is the cataloging of coins, including any narrative included with the coin -- about its design & creation, associated logs and photos, etc.

 

I know there are several online resources for pictures, but the cool thing about a geocoin museum would be all of this additional documentation (and photography). It'd be a lot of work.

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

Many small museums were started as individual private collections. Any one of you who has a collection could create a museum, even if it is only open by appointment or one day a month. There are many tiny museums that opperate this way. Some of them have grown into larger displays with reguar schedules, and some have not. I think there are already some well established museums whose themes would cover the art of GeoCoins. The National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, TN is one that is on my list to visit, and I think they would incorporate this art form.

Edited December 7, 2008 by WRITE SHOP ROBERT

[+fox-and-the-hound]

I think it's a great idea, but of course there are a few coins out there that are actually unique. I mean it in the strictest sense of the word in that there might only be one. The way that makes the most sense to me as far as everyone having access at all times from all places would be a virtual museum. An actual Official Geocoin Museum Website. Coins could be submit with minimum requirements for photo resolution and cointain descriptions with all pertinent information. It's not as cool as seeing it in person, but then you wouldn't get to hold them in hand anyway at a museum. The real problem with this idea is that it would be quite labor intensive, but the upside is that we have many, MANY volunteers who could help with many different aspects of the work involved.

 

edit to add: The cost of running the website would probably be tax deductible, too, but I'm not positive about that. Anyone?

Edited December 7, 2008 by fox-and-the-hound

[+forthferalz]

l think GC are rightly more interested in us finding them in caches or at events! that's the supreme publically accessible museum. There's a sigitem ammocan in Australia travelling around - not sure if there are any coins in it though as last time i had it coins were really scarce. The logbook is the inventory.

 

The narratives are collected in the virtual museums which are the wikis and detailed info which is proving ephemeral and hard to catch up on - so everyone posting here please GET STUCK INTO IT.

 

could Geocoinfest organisers to oversee such a stash? Otherwise yeah I reckon the major minters are located in the right spots if they were willing and have a physical presence large enough to accomodate a display area. People will go to these as part of a larger trip - there are marble, opal and porcelain museums I have visited located in commercial premises.

 

In the days when i had a few dozen coins we had some up in the local library for public display for a few weeks as part of general geocaching display. The Hobart museum also curates children's collections on a rotating basis as a 'short term donation'. The benefits of doing it this way over bringing them to an event is - no one will drop your coins (ouch dented mystery coin) or nick them ( muggles nicked the GPS on the other table though!) and little kids will not have to be disappointed you don't find a used lollipop a suitable trade for your XXXLE radioactiveversion.

[+forthferalz]

PS good idea for some of my coins which have gone awol to europe "heading to a TB museum in Hannover, Germany:

The Hitchhiker’s ride to Legacy – TB Museum

GCPX30 Would the next holder please change the mission card for me! "

[+dhenninger]

There is a geocoin and sig item display case that is part of the traveling GPS Adventure Maze

 

There are a bunch of coins in there, but only a fraction of the thousands of coins out there.

[+007BigD]

Ill bet it could be done...and actually it could probably take up a pretty large space if they were all displayed!!!

 

I know id donate a coin... Boy here I thought I had a inventory, itemizing problem! I wonder how a huge display would be categorized???

 

I WOULD GO!!! "If you build it, they will come!"