New to Geocoins...quick question

[FunkMaster-T]

Hello all...I attempted to look in all the geo coin FAQ's and such but could not find a clear answer for my question. Hopefully someone will be willing to help...

 

My sons and I (ages 5 and 2) have recently started geocaching and we would like to have our own geocoin to enter into caches we find...this seems like common practice...what my question is is can I create my own (I am a little handy) and register them to be trackable or can you only track the ones you order through the various websites listed? If I am understanding correctly I can order tracking numbers or ID's through the site and then attach them to whatever I create but I am not sure I am reading that right. Would I be smarter to just attach a TB to the coin?

 

Thanks for the help...T.

[+tiki]

Aloha FunkMaster!

 

I've been making my own coins to leave in caches and have recently been producing a set of trackables. I dunno how handy you want to get with the project - but I have a fairly in-depth "how they are made" section on my site:

 

http://www.geotiki.com/claytikicoins

 

All tracking # info is pinned to the top of this forum. Hope that helps - be sure to share photos of your creations!

 

Tiki

Edited July 12, 2010 by tiki

[FunkMaster-T]

Thanks Tiki...those are some amazing works of art...I hope mine turn out half that good...probably going to use wood for mine...will see what I can come up with and will definetly post some pics...thanks again for the info...T.

[+Droo]

For more info on creating your own trackable mint run of trackable geocoins, section 4.3 of the Knowledge Base has all the ins and outs... or most of them anyway.

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

You can certainly create your own trackable items, either by having them minted for you or by making them yourself by whatever means you like, as long as you get the design approved by Groundspeak.

Edited July 12, 2010 by WRITE SHOP ROBERT

[+Manville Possum]

Might I suggest that you just buy some geocoins that are on the market, and use them as your personial trackables? I really love our "take a kid caching" geocoin that we dip in caches that the kids and I find. And yes, you can attach a trackable number of yours to an item that you have made. When one of my trackables go missing, I just "reassign" that number to an item. I do state that the item is a copy somewhere on it's listing page.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited July 14, 2010 by Manville Possum Hunters

[+GeocoinGuy]

You can certainly create your own trackable items, either by having them minted for you or by making them yourself by whatever means you like, as long as you get the design approved by Groundspeak.

Along these lines, the reason Groundspeak must approve the design is to ensure family friendliness on a Groundspeak trackable item.

 

~J

[FunkMaster-T]

Thanks everyone for the tips. I created my first one yesterday...sliced a piece of 1 1/2" wooden dowling into a disc and then took the ol' rotary tool to it. Came out pretty good if I do say so myself...trying to get a nice shot of it to put on here (but I'll have to wait until my wife gets home to show me how to put the pics on the computer...bit of a computer moron here...lol). Gonna work on some more of them over the next few days. We are going on a 2 week vacation soon and I would like to have some to drop along the way...T.

[FunkMaster-T]

Another quick question...or actually might be better described as advice...Since I am hand carving each one, would you avid collectors rather see coins that were fairly uniform in design (as uniform as is possible when hand carving) or would you rather see each coin have its own "personallity" based on a similar theme (which in this case is our Caching name - The HandsomeBoys). I realize that having each one have its own design will make it harder to appply for tracking numbers because each one would probably then have to be approved individually (would this be possible since you need to order 50 #'s at once?) I guess I would have to have all 50 approved which might take a while. What is your opinion? Thanks...T.