Help me get my first coin out there! :D

[GraysonG]

Hey everyone,

Im working on making glass geocoins. I am hand carving the dies out of graphite and then pressing them into molten glass to make my coins. I pressed the first five of them yesterday and realized that I needed to make my die in reverse for it to look right on the coin haha oops. But I wanted to throw my idea out there and get the opinion of everyone on the forums. So heres what im thinking:

 

Double sided. One side will say GeoGlass on the top, Big Island on the bottom (im making them in Hawaii), and have a wave in the middle. This is the design of the prototype I pressed yesterday and it lookes really nice. The other side will say "Track at Geocaching.com" and have the tracking number hand etched on. Both sides will have a boarder around the coin.

 

The coins will be about 2 inches.

 

They will come in every color imaginable. Since I am making them individually by hand I can use a different color glass for each one. I have every shade of the rainbow, and I can also make them with glow in the dark glass, and with gold and silver leaf for about 50 cents more.

 

I am going to sell them. I have never sold coins before thow so any advice would be great. Im thinking about making a website for them and linking to it from my glass art site. Ill also post it on the forums. The price will be $9 each, is this reasonable? $10 for glow in the dark, gold leaf, and silver leaf coins.

 

So what do you think?

[+DaFunkyFrogs]

hows chances of seeing a pic??? sounds very interesting...

[+fairyhoney]

hows chances of seeing a pic??? sounds very interesting...

 

YES, a picture is always nice . . .

 

Will it have its own ICON???

[+DJ.J.ROCK]

I think the first thing is to become an aproved vendor with Groundspeak if you haven't allready. Then after that make a few of each and post a pic and start taking orders thru your website.

[GraysonG]

I think the first thing is to become an aproved vendor with Groundspeak if you haven't allready. Then after that make a few of each and post a pic and start taking orders thru your website.

 

Do you know how to become a aproved vendor? I also want to get on that list of manufacturers because I can make these coins for other people too. I can do smaller batches then when you order from china and glass coins are unique so I think i can be competative

[kdlutz41]

I would love to see the pictures also...sorry no help here with the vendor questions....

[+Jackalgirl]

Re: vendorizing yourself, check out this link, which is the link to the Groundspeak tracking policy. It tells you, for example, how many coin codes are sold, at a minimum, etc. You can get in touch with bryan - at - Groundspeak.com for design approval, and I'm sure he can let you know about becoming an approved vendor.

 

I'd also like to see pics! : )

[GraysonG]

Re: vendorizing yourself, check out this link, which is the link to the Groundspeak tracking policy. It tells you, for example, how many coin codes are sold, at a minimum, etc. You can get in touch with bryan - at - Groundspeak.com for design approval, and I'm sure he can let you know about becoming an approved vendor.

 

I'd also like to see pics! : )

 

Thanks I sent Bryan a email. I have pics of my first die and of my proto type coin but I can't figure out how to upload them :/

[+StealthRT]

I'm not familiar with molten glass in this form. Would you say that it is quite durable (i.e. will it stand up when people toss it willy-nilly into various ammo cans)?

 

I know there are no more ammo cans, only pill bottles, but just in case.

[GraysonG]

I'm not familiar with molten glass in this form. Would you say that it is quite durable (i.e. will it stand up when people toss it willy-nilly into various ammo cans)?

 

I know there are no more ammo cans, only pill bottles, but just in case.

 

Well it's not molten glass anymore once I stamp it. Then it cools to solid glass. But they are quite strong, I use a cooling process called anieling where I let te coins cool down from 900 degrees to room temp over 10 hours. This relieves all the stress in the coin by leting it cool evenly all the way threw. The demo that I made is really strong, It was in my lap and I stood up quickly sending it across the room without a scratch. But I'm sure if I tryed to break it I could. I think they will last a long time out there in the "wild"

[+Jackalgirl]

There are already a couple of glass geocoins out there (Coins and Pins put the Crystal Rose geocoin in glass and Forthferalz has made some really beautiful panchromatic glass geocoins, too. I've got them all and they're pretty darn sturdy -- not that I'd actually want to toss them anywhere (if I were to let them out of my sweaty little clutches, I'd be very gentle) but they all seem very strong.

 

I think there'd be a definite interest in your coins, GraysonG. I'd certainly buy some (though I'd also like to see some pics; that would determine whether I buy one or several : ) ). I love non-metal geocoins, especially high-quality hand-made ones!

[GraysonG]

There are already a couple of glass geocoins out there (Coins and Pins put the Crystal Rose geocoin in glass and Forthferalz has made some really beautiful panchromatic glass geocoins, too. I've got them all and they're pretty darn sturdy -- not that I'd actually want to toss them anywhere (if I were to let them out of my sweaty little clutches, I'd be very gentle) but they all seem very strong.

 

I think there'd be a definite interest in your coins, GraysonG. I'd certainly buy some (though I'd also like to see some pics; that would determine whether I buy one or several : ) ). I love non-metal geocoins, especially high-quality hand-made ones!

 

thank you for the encouragement, i'm taking this project head on, I should have coins made and my website up ready to sell in 2 or 3 weeks. I'll have the final design up in a few days and then on a coin soon after I hope. My coin is not quite like thows two coins you showed me since one is sand blaseted and the other fused, but they are all similar. After my first round of pruduction if it goes well I'll add in a whole slew of colors and then start working on my next coin

[+Jackalgirl]

Can't wait to see 'em! : )