Travel Bug for Geocoin?

[ChuckNAnge]

I found a Geocoin in a cache on Saturday, my first day of caching. I read that the coin wanted to travel the world, so I removed it since I will be traveling a good distance this weekend and will place the coin in another cache when I reach my destination. At the time, I did not have anything to leave in place of the coin, however, I did leave a note in the log promising to leave something before I travel. I have ordered a few Travel Bugs and would like to leave one attached to something handmade of polished stone in the cache where I found the coin. Is this an acceptable trade out? By polished stone I mean Tiger Eye, Garnet, Sodalite, that sort of thing, not just a rock I picked up. Any help or opinions would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks from a newbie!

 

Ange of

ChuckNAnge

[+plumbrokeacres]

The goal of coins and travelbugs are to travel they are the one thing you don't have to trade for, you just have to be willing to move them in a timely manner.

[+Jackalgirl]

As plumbrokeacres has said, the "Trade equal, trade up, or don't trade at all" maxim doesn't apply to Travel Bugs or Geocoins. You don't have to leave a Travel Bug (or Geocoin) to take one -- you simply have to be willing to help the Traveller with its mission. This means that you don't have to worry about the quality of your TBs or Geocoins with regards to the quality of TBs/Geocoins that you find in the wild, either.

 

It's cool that you want to attach a TB to a nice polished rock -- that would make a cool bug. But it would be just as fine to attach a TB to a plain rock -- it's the traveller's /story/, IMO, as well as its mission, that makes it interesting. Plus, thieves would be more likely to steal a semi-precious stone TB than they would a plain rock (see Snoogans' TB Longevity Clinic, a pinned topic, over in the TB Forum for more on this).

 

Welcome to the Forum!

Edited April 6, 2009 by Jackalgirl

[+fuzziebear3]

First off, welcome to geocaching, and to the wonderful world of coins and travel bugs!

 

Then for the answer to your questions:

 

You are perfectly allowed to pick up that coin from the cache. Just be sure to log it, and to move it to a new cache in a reasonable amount of time (less than 2 weeks is good), and make sure you log it into that cache too.

 

'Trade rules' (trade up, trade even, or don't trade at all) are a little relaxed around travelers. Since they like to move, feel free to help them on their missions, even if you might not have a trade with you right now. It is nice to swap if you can. Or if you want to go back and put a replacement in that cache that is fine, or put something extra in the next one. It all works out in a global way.

 

Your TB idea sounds very nice. I have seen TBs on everything from toys to books to keys to stuffed animals to pictures to .... and I enjoy reading about and moving every one. The only caution is that something nice may disappear from circulation.

[+Droo]

Not to repeat the sage advice already given I will only add that you need only trade up or equal for items you will keep, like swag (unactivated coins should you be so lucky) or a signature item (non trackable coins fall in this category). BTW it's totally cool that you should ask.

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

As the others have said, you do not need to leave something in trade for a Traveling Bug/Coin.

 

If you ever did find an unactivated or non trackable coin that was left as a trade item, I thing that most people would feel that an unactivated Travel Bug would be a fair trade. Geocoins usually have a value of about $5-$12, so you can use that as a guide in trading for one that is not already owned, activated and traveling.

[+Ruud4d]

Just a little addition in light of the changed rules.

There are caches that are meant as a TB/coin-hotel.

The owner of that cache often demands trading a trackable item for another trackable item.

The new rules state that these demands should change into questions and that the finder of the cache doesn't have to live up to these demands or questions.

So in fact if you find a box with like 10 trackables, you could take them all without putting anything back. But I must say that's a bit against the normal rules of commom sense. If you come to a box that full, leave something for the next finder. Perhaps take 10 and leave 5 or so? That's up to you.

Edited April 7, 2009 by Ruud4d

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

Just a little addition in light of the changed rules.

There are caches that are meant as a TB/coin-hotel.

The owner of that cache often demands trading a trackable item for another trackable item.

The new rules state that these demands should change into questions and that the finder of the cache doesn't have to live up to these demands or questions.

So in fact if you find a box with like 10 trackables, you could take them all without putting anything back. But I must say that's a bit against the normal rules of commom sense. If you come to a box that full, leave something for the next finder. Perhaps take 10 and leave 5 or so? That's up to you.

There have been Cache Owners that made these demants, but they have no right to do so. Trackable items are owned by the people who released them, and cannot be mandated to be left in a Cache by the Cache owner. They would also not have any right to mandate that all trackables be left in place for themselves to retreive. There are also a bunch of Travel Bug Liberators out that have a mandate to set free all Travelers that are trapped in a Cache with trading rules.

[+BlueDeuce]

There are also a bunch of Travel Bug Liberators out that have a mandate to set free all Travelers that are trapped in a Cache with trading rules.

 

I consider it my solemn duty.