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Miner's Protector Lamp is now available!

Eclectic Penguin

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Eclectic Penguin

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Pre-announcing the coin that will represent the South Wales Geocachers for 2010 - the Miner's Safety Lamp.

 

artwork02.jpg

 

This is in very early design stages at this point and details have already been modified from this artwork, but we're hoping to have them in production within 2-3 weeks (possibly earlier) and really hope to have metal to ship well within 2 months (barring unforseen delays!)

 

What is it?

It's a representation of a miner's safety lamp. This design has been in use in coal mines all across the world since its original design in 1873 as a way of taking a naked flame safely into areas that could potentially have poisonous or flamable gases in mines. It had the additional function of changing the flame's colour and consistency in the presence of firedamp (flamable & poisonous) - and despite its antique look, the Garnforth GR-6S lamp is still in regular use today for this purpose.

 

Original lamps from the original manufacturer can still be bought for decorative purposes too. There are numerous pictures of the real thing there - I also have one on my mantlepiece - though mine is extremely battered as it saw many active years of service down a Welsh mine in the hands of my uncle who was a mine fire inspector.

 

The Front of the coin

 

What we DO know:

 

The coin is a 2 tone metal coin - gold and nickel.

 

The GS serial number is going to be engraved on the base of the coin

 

Within the lamp's badge, there will be a unique coin serial number - just as each lamp in the mine would have its own unique number number.

 

It will be a shaped coin - cut out in the shape of the lamp.

 

There will be 2 varieties - one with a light lantern enamel and one with a darker enamel (to represent unlit).

 

There will be a production run of 250 - 125 "lit" and 125 "unlit".

 

It's being created by the great folk at Oakcoins - I've had 2 personal coins and our last 2009 coin came from them too and we envisage all the coins minted to raise money for our event to come from their capable hands.

 

Differences to this design:

 

The text in the lamp's badge will be raised rather than recessed

- apart from the laser etched serial number, which, to make it look "stamped", won't be filled in with colour true to original lamps as used "in anger" in coal mines all across the world to this day.

 

As mentioned already - GS number on the base, with an added individual coin number

 

There are significant changes to the lantern area - some of these are ongoing.

- some of the struts are being removed.

- a representation of a small "flame" is being added

- The wick assembly is now going to be under transparent enamel - raised metal.

 

There are other minor changes and tweaks being made all the time, but the current design is substantially what we want for the front of the coin.

 

The Back of the coin

 

This isn't set yet and we have no artwork to present - but the predominant idea so far is to represent the lantern as it would look from the opposite side.

This means:

Remove the lantern badge and the small flint-light switch.

All else will be mirror image.

I'm toying with a couple of ideas with replacing the number plate with something else, but this would make the design less "authentic", I suppose.

 

What we definitely can't do

One wish on the wishlist was to make the lantern section translucent, but this isn't possible with the current metal selections and representation of the wick assembly.

 

Fund Raising

 

The coin is a fund-raiser. It will hopefully make money for the South Wales Geocachers group to help us put together future events.

 

We are hoping to do a pre-sale on the lamp coin, but we won't do that until the final coin details have been finalized.

 

Final cost will depend on production costs and currency exchange rate but I estimate it'll be selling for a similar price to our South Wales 2009 coin - around £7 GBP.

 

We will have an online shopping cart for pre-sales and sales. This will be very similar to my shopping cart which was used to sell a couple of my own coins and the South Wales 2009 coin - but on a different host. I'll announce here where to find that when it's opened.

 

We're open to suggestions!

If you have an idea for this coin - now's the time to make a suggestion. We're well into the final stages of getting this coin minted, but if, before we pay the bucks "to make it so" someonecomes up with a major suggestion/change that we think is fantastic, enhances the coin and makes it even more attractive, I may be able to convince the South Wales Geocachers group into providing one of the coins for you in gratitude...

 

I hope you guys like it - we think its lovely - it represents Wales in a way that who live here have a personal connection with.

Edited by Eclectic Penguin
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Jackalgirl

+Jackalgirl

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Very, very cool design! I love stuff with historical references, and an object with such ties to hidden places is very appropriate for geocoins. I can't wait to see it for real.

 

I like the idea of having the coin be representative of the back of the lamp. My only real suggestion, since I don't have any experience with these types of lamps, is to make sure that something in there uses glow enamel. : )

 

You could put a shape/outline around the wick that's representative of how flame burned in these types of lamps. Then put glow in there, and see if you can find a glow that's representative of the actual color (when glowing) of the flame when it was indicating firedamp. (You mentioned that the flame changed color, which is pretty cool, and would be really cool if you could capture that in the enamel.)

 

Cheers!

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Eclectic Penguin

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Loves it and the Cornish connection - I'll be buying a few, I too have a "Davy Lamp" as they're called in this neck of the woods..

 

I too mistakenly called it a Davy Lamp at first before being corrected. The Davy Lamp works on a similar principle but the actual Davy lamp was a different design and used a gauze instead of glass. Many people call the current lamp a Davy lamp though.

 

The current lamp owes more to the lamp invented by George Stephenson (the father of railways) in the same year. This became known as the "Geordie" lamp and was prefferred by the miners in the North of England because it produced more light. This is also how the name Geordie became known as the collective name for people who live in the Tyneside area.

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keehotee

+keehotee

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Loves it and the Cornish connection - I'll be buying a few, I too have a "Davy Lamp" as they're called in this neck of the woods..

 

I too mistakenly called it a Davy Lamp at first before being corrected. The Davy Lamp works on a similar principle but the actual Davy lamp was a different design and used a gauze instead of glass. Many people call the current lamp a Davy lamp though.

 

The current lamp owes more to the lamp invented by George Stephenson (the father of railways) in the same year. This became known as the "Geordie" lamp and was prefferred by the miners in the North of England because it produced more light. This is also how the name Geordie became known as the collective name for people who live in the Tyneside area.

 

Nice coin Hywel but, semantics aside - to a "non-Welsh" person like me, it looks about as Welsh as a pastie....

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Eclectic Penguin

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Loves it and the Cornish connection - I'll be buying a few, I too have a "Davy Lamp" as they're called in this neck of the woods..

 

I too mistakenly called it a Davy Lamp at first before being corrected. The Davy Lamp works on a similar principle but the actual Davy lamp was a different design and used a gauze instead of glass. Many people call the current lamp a Davy lamp though.

 

The current lamp owes more to the lamp invented by George Stephenson (the father of railways) in the same year. This became known as the "Geordie" lamp and was prefferred by the miners in the North of England because it produced more light. This is also how the name Geordie became known as the collective name for people who live in the Tyneside area.

 

Nice coin Hywel but, semantics aside - to a "non-Welsh" person like me, it looks about as Welsh as a pastie....

 

True. However, we'll be selling it through the South Wales Geocachers shopping cart (note to self... must set that up!) and it will raise money for Geocaching events being held in South Wales.

 

This may not be the South Wales Geocachers 2010 coin... We've had significant progress today on a second coin that we will probably be co-launching with the lamp coin and there's a fair chance that will be the South Wales Geocachers 2010 coin...

 

I'm allowed to say what it is - but I'll hold off just a little bit until we get some form of idea of cost and artwork - think of a big tournament coming to South Wales for the first time, in the latter part of the year. I love the prelimiary design and idea and suspect it'll far outsell the lamp to a very different market.

 

I'll then announce it in a separate thread in this forum. By then we hope to have pre-sales up and running.

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Eclectic Penguin

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Here's the second (and we expect penultimate) iteration of our coin's design:

 

artwork03.jpg

 

Differences added since:

 

xxx/250 will be laser etched and not filled in black to give it the authentic "stamped" look, which is what was done on real lamps.

 

The "Track on Geocaching.com" text (or similar) will be on the flipside of the coin, opposite the tracking number itself (worded "Engraving letters).

 

 

We hope to get this coin ordered in about 7-10 days, once the mint in China come back from new year's holidays as we're now very happy with the design. Thanks for suggestions - what we were aiming for was something interesting that would appeal internationally but not having an overly complex design.

 

Although I designed and facilitated it into production with Oakcoins (with many helpful suggestions from friends) , this coin, once it covers production costs, will bring in money for future Geocaching events in Wales, by the South Wales Geocaching community and the financial backing to put it into initial production has been provided by a consortium of investors within the community.

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MineRP

+MineRP

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Cool

Can you put me down for two.

One of each.

Please email me through GC.Com when available. Thanks

Worked 30 years in the submarine coal mines of Cape Breton, N.S., Canada.

53d52cd3-ef7d-470b-adf3-c3290b30afda.jpg

Our locked flame safety lamp was a Koehler, an American product.

All lamps have gauzes, if the lamp encounters methane gas, the flame will burn higher and the concentration can be determined. If the lamp is brought into an explosive atmosphere ( +5 % CH4 ), the gas will explode within and the gauze will absorbe the heat and not allow the ignition to pass out and into the mine atmosphere. The models with the glass globe has the gauze on top, allowing the flame to be read easier.

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Eclectic Penguin

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Thanks for the two previous comments.

 

Firstly, the xxx/250 is (if being done) all laser etched. We're considering dropping the /250 as that's not authentic to the lamp - and we're not commiting to a minimum order of 250 should it prove popular.

 

It will most certainly have its own icon - I haven't designed that yet but its on the to-do list.

 

We're very close to ordering the coin now - its in its final iteration of artwork tweaks and I'll publish the final artwork here once I'm happy with it.

 

Pre-sales has hit some hitches (mainly to do with setting up bank accounts as this is a fund-raiser for the South Wales Geocachers and their future events).

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Eclectic Penguin

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This is just to let you know that the final version of this coin, after much tweaking is finally handed over to the mint for production. We're looking at roughly 4 weeks before this coin will be ready for sale!

 

Here's the very final artwork and I should have photos of actual sample coins within 2 weeks:

 

lampFinal.jpg

 

As mentioned previously, initially there are going to be 2 different kinds - one with a light enamel as shown and another darker one to represent the lamp being out. (please note it's not completely transparent - you're seeing various depths of metal under the transparent enamel).

 

The lamp will be priced at around £6.50 - £7 GBP (which in dollars is currently around $10 USD) with postage and packing adding a small extra amount (see my coin page linked to in my .sig below for an example of P&P for last year's coins).

 

As we still haven't got the payment system in place yet, I'm now setting up a pre-order email address where you can express definite interest in ordering one or more of these coins. By sending your intention to this address, you will definitely get what you ordered and you will be given first priority when we're sending them out.

 

I will maintain a list of contacts and inform you when the ordering system is in place. The email addresses will only be used for this purpose and will be deleted once the process is in place.

 

If you want to pre-order a coin or a number of coins, please send your intention to

geocoins (at) southwalesgeocachers.co.uk, replacing the (at) with the @ symbol.

 

Bear in mind that I've also announced the release of a second completely different coin which should hopefully go on sale at the same time so joint orders of the two different coins/metals/colors is encouraged to save on postage and packing! You can find this being discussed in the forum under the heading:

South Wales Geocachers Golfers Coin

 

Please, in your email indicate the number of each coin type you'll be ordering. I also encourage you to let others know here of your interest in this coin should you be interested in ordering.

 

We're planning a simultaneous release of both coins and variations so if you're interested in ordering some of each type of coin, or different variations of a single coin we actively encourage this to help you save on postage. Online ordering / payment will hopefully be in place within the next 2-3 weeks and coins should be available in around 4-5 weeks.

 

Both this and the Golfing Coin coin are being produced to raise money for future Geocaching related activities such as events within the Geocaching Community in South Wales, United Kingdom.

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Eclectic Penguin

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Thankyou to all who have sent me emails of interest - I'll contact everyone individually when the payment system has been set up (it's still just round the corner, and has been for weeks due to various small niggling problems we're having!)

 

Here, for the first time is what the coin will actually look like:

 

Sample_Front.jpg

 

Sample_Back.jpg

 

A couple of minor differences between this and the final - the black infill will be on the tracking number (where it says SAMPLE) rather than the coin's serial number - and the /250 will be dropped from the serial number.

 

The dark enamel used to represent the unlit lamp is transparent I'm assured and you can still make out the detail of the lamp mechanism inside.

 

We're going to be pushing straight into production based on these photographs from Oakcoins so within the next few days, we'll have started the final order for the coins. I'll contact first those who have registered an interest as soon as ordering and then the coins are available.

 

If you want to pre-order a coin or a number of coins, please send your intention to

geocoins (at) southwalesgeocachers.co.uk, replacing the (at) with the @ symbol.

Edited by Eclectic Penguin
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Eclectic Penguin

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Just to clarify, to those who've given PayPal email addresses for invoicing via the email address, we won't be invoicing anyone's PayPal accounts as a basis of initial contact via the given email address.

 

What I propose to do is individually respond to all emails sent to this email address with details of the web site where you will be able to browse and order these coins as and when they become available for pre-order and sale. As we will be primarily selling in Sterling, the web site will give you an idea of what it will cost along with postage and packaging in your own currency before you order.

 

The web site is in testing but is not on-line as yet, until we can sort out the details for the community bank account we're setting up as the South Wales Geocachers.

 

As a courtesy I'll include the email address provided for the PayPal if you've sent that too as part of the mailshot.

 

As mentioned previously, once the on-line shopping facility goes active, I'll contact everyone and then delete the list of email addresses as this is the sole purpose of this mailing - you won't hear from me directly again unless you contact me via other means - I respect privacy and HATE spam...

 

We also hope to have photos of our Golfing coin on this forum in the next day or so, so keep an eye out for that thread if you're interested in that coin too... and remember, once the shopping cart goes online, you'll be able to combine orders of both types of the Miner's Lamp and also both types of the Golf coin into one order to save money on postage and packing.

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Eclectic Penguin

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Like this coin very much - will trawl through the forum, and discover how to order/reserve a couple of these babies, as well as the very nice looking golf coins

 

Don't worry - I'll make it very clear how to order these once the system is in place - they should be available for sale and shipping within about 3 weeks. Same goes for the golf coins (though we've had a 1 week delay on the golf coins).

 

I'm still hoping on a brief pre-order period - but the setting up of the financial system to do this is currently out of my hands.

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Eclectic Penguin

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The lamp's official title is now Miner's Protector Lamp (as that's what's written on the lamp itself and the correct title for such a lamp, though Safety is equally used).

 

Here are the icons I've designed for the lamp:

 

lampIcon32.gif 32x32 icon

 

lampIcon16.gif 16x16 icon

 

Here also are my photographs of the sample coins which arrived yesterday:

 

lampLit480.jpg

Miner's Protector Lamp (lit)

 

lampDark480.jpg

Miner's Protector Lamp (unlit)

 

I've been told that the actual coins will be with us within a couple of weeks (no later than May 1st, our annual South Wales event which takes place near to the city of Swansea this year) - I'll post details of final costs and how to order as soon as this is available to me.

 

As mentioned previously, as well as Groundspeak tracking numbers, which will appear where the word SAMPLE appears (I gather with a slight curve to imitate the curve of the lamp), each coin will also have an individual serial number (denoted by 0 in this case).

 

Some of the lowest numbered coins will be withheld for auctioning to raise more money for the South Wales Geocachers and future events. Coin number 1 is to be auctioned in the South Wales Event (which happens to take place on Geocaching's 10th anniversary so it also a "10 Years!" event as well. Details of this will be shortly given on the event page.

Edited by Eclectic Penguin
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Eclectic Penguin

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For the first time today, the Miner's Protector Lamp, the latest South Wales Geocacher's coin is now available for direct internet sale!

 

lampLit480.jpg

 

You can now order this lovely geocoin directly from me* at http://www.eclectic-penguin.org.uk/cart

 

As you'll see from the shop website, there are two versions available - lit and unlit. Also, the trackable number (where the word SAMPLE appears on this photograph) is actually curved to emphasize the lamp's shape on the final coin, a little like the reflection seen on the table, actually. The trackable number is not a genric PC or EV registration - it starts with "WA" representing the first of a series of coins coming from the Geocachers in Wales. Each lamp has a unique serial number as well as trackable nubmer - this appears on the lamp's number plate, just like a real miner's lamp.

 

It was made available locally for the first time last weekend during our annual South Wales Geocaching event - and 20% of the 250 coins were sold there alone... Also, almost everyone who bought/saw the coin commented that the photographs don't really do it justice - and I have to agree, having spent an hour or so as the photographer!

 

For the first time also, the South Wales Golfer's Coin is available for pre-sale orders. Be aware though that if you order one or more of these alongside a Miner's Lamp that your order will be held back until the golfer's Coins are available (a matter of days, as the Golfer's Coin has been in transit for almost a week).

* At the moment I'm selling these on behalf of South Wales Geocachers as I did for our first Geocoin last year, but I'm hoping to get a new shopping cart online soon dedicated to the South Wales coins - present and future. We've had some unforeseen hitches in getting the payment system in place for this... meanwhile - this is currently the only place you can get these coins online!

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Eclectic Penguin

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I like how well the translucents and different levels work to appear to illuminate the inside of the coin.

 

I have to agree with you - and this came out so much better in the final product than expected based on development graphics! It even works to an extent in the dark version (which can't be seen in the pictures at all). Think very dark purple with the same effect as the lit ones.

 

Incidentally, so many who have seen and bought the coins in real life* say that the photos don't do them justice and I fully agree - I spent an hour with my camera and a hand held studio flash gun trying to photograph these from all possible angles for flash and camera and I still don't feel happy with the photos.

 

One thing I AM happy about though is that although using two tone metal adds significantly to the coin's manufacture price, it absolutely works on this coin and the coin wouldn't have worked without this effect.

 

I'll let you into another "dark" secret... We initially figured the dark coins were going to be unpopular so we under-ordered compared to the lit versions. They can't be classed as limited edition under this forum's perception but they'll definitely sell out FAR quicker than the lit ones based on current sales... the first batch at least (assuming we'll be ordering more - but future versions will have differences, if made). Based on people's actual perceptions when seeing the coin... this is also true - more people want the very dark purple coin than the amber, which still puzzles me - but who am I to argue?!

 

* we sold them for the first time in our South Wales event last weekend.

Edited by Eclectic Penguin
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Eclectic Penguin

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An apology to our North American friends

 

It has come to my attention that due to an error on the shopping cart's currency rates, if you used the Dollar currency converter on the shopping cart, the estimated price being quoted for the South Wales Geocachers Miner's Protector Lamp Geocoin was significantly higher than what you would ultimately have been billed for.

 

For example, for a single coin it would add roughly $1.45 to the estimated cost of the coin - and this doesn't take into account shipping and packaging which would also have been inflated.

 

I have now amended the currency rate to suite contemporary rates and have added a number of other major currencies to the estimator.

 

If you liked the look of these coins but figured the price was too expensive based on the currency converter, I encourage you to have another look at the cart and the images in the above thread. You can currently find them at http://www.eclectic-penguin.org.uk/cart

 

This wouldn't have affected any purchases already made - the final accurate currency conversion is made when the transaction is completed via PayPal.

 

Please accept my apologies for this error - I hope it didn't deter too many people from buying our latest coins, of which we're quite proud of!

 

Eclectic Penguin (on behalf of the South Wales Geocachers, for whom this coin is a fund-raiser for future events including next year's Wales Mega Event, held in the City of Swansea, South Wales).

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